Chocolate-Chile Molten Cakes

Emma Whitley
Emma fearlessly explores bold flavors and perfects her baking craft, sharing her delicious experiments with joy.
Updated: 7/28/2020

These lava cakes come with a hint of a chipotle bite.

This take on a molten cake brings the old flavor combination of chocolate with just a little chile heat into the present. The batter must be frozen before baking, going directly from freezer to oven to table (put it in towards the end of dinner). It’s baked in individual ramekins and served hot. And although chipotle pepper may sound odd, it produces a nice kick that’s perfect with cooling vanilla ice cream. Use as much or as little of the pepper as you like.

Prep: 20 minutes Cook: 15 minutes
Serves: 6 Save

Ingredients (13)

  • Cooking spray
  • 1/2 cup sugar, divided
  • 5 ounce best-quality semisweet chocolate, chopped (such as Ghirardelli)
  • 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 10 tablespoon butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoon stone-ground cornmeal
  • 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
  • Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, cocoa nibs, and raspberries or other fresh fruit for garnish

Directions

  1. Spray six 1-cup ramekins with cooking spray. Coat each with 1 teaspoon sugar.
  2. Place chocolates in a double boiler set over barely simmering hot water. Stir occasionally until chocolates melt. Remove from heat.
  3. Beat butter and sugar together with a mixer until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and chopped chipotle; the mixture may separate slightly. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping bowl and beating 1 minute between additions. Add chocolate and beat 5 minutes. (Batter will be thick.)
  4. Combine salt, cornmeal, flour and cocoa; sift over batter and stir.
  5. Divide batter among ramekins. Don't worry about smoothing out the tops. Cover each tightly with plastic wrap and freeze at least 4 hours.
  6. Preheat oven to 400F.
  7. Bake frozen cakes 10 minutes. (Tops will smooth out.) Let stand 5 minutes. Invert onto serving plates. Serve immediately with ice cream and berries.

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