What’s better than a cake with a gooey molten chocolate center? This molten lava cake is rich and fudgy with no refined sugar; it’s sweetened with maple!
But really: what’s better than a chocolate cake with a gooey molten center? Alex and I don’t make many of desserts in our household, but we’re all about an occasional splurge. And, we love a challenge: here we tried to come up with a molten lava cake that uses no refined sugar but still tastes amazing. And we think we did it! Keep reading for the molten lava cake recipe.
Making molten lava cake
This molten lava cake turned out is ultra delicious, using nothing other than maple syrup as a sweetener, and a small amount of coconut oil as the fat. It also has a very low amount of flour per serving, and uses only cocoa powder to make the chocolate: not actual melted chocolate! Even though it’s a molten lava cake with a healthy spin, it still tastes fudgy and chocolatey.
The most important part of making molten lava cake is liberally butter or oil the ramekins! You can make these cakes in either 2 8-inch ramekins or 4 5-inch ramekins. It’s important to butter or oil the ramkins because once they are baked, you’ll need to invert them onto the plate. If any part of the ramekin is not buttered, you’ll have a lava cake catastrophe! Of course, you can eat them in the ramekins too! But they’ll be hot so you’ll have to wait for them to cool down a bit before you try.
The only other thing to note with this recipe is that the bake time can vary based on the size of the ramekin and your exact oven temperature. We’ve listed the timing in the recipe below, but you’ll have to check because every oven is different. Bake the molten lava cakes until the top is just set but the inside is gooey — you can check using a toothpick.
If you make the full recipe for four servings, it’s decadence at a minimal calorie count. But more importantly, it’s a quick and easy treat to throw together using natural ingredients that you might already have in your pantry. Give it a try for an upcoming special meal – and try to use local eggs and honey if they are available to you!
Looking for easy desserts?
Outside of this molten lava cake, here are a few more easy desserts:
- Bananas Foster with a Perfect Flambé
- Easy Blueberry Crisp
- Best Applesauce Cake
- Amazing Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Recipe
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
- “Bliss Bites” Healthy No-Bake Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Tahini Vegan No Bake Cookies
- Granola Instant Pot Apple Crisp
- Berry Banana Ice Cream
- Chocolate Cherry Dessert Bites
- Cherry Quinoa Chocolate Bark
- 25 Easy Desserts
- Healthy Peanut Butter Buckeye Balls Recipe
- Chewy Gluten-Free Skillet Almond Flour Cookie
Molten Lava Cake
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 or 4 1x
Description
What’s better than a cake with a gooey molten chocolate center? This molten lava cake is rich and fudgy with no refined sugar; it’s sweetened with maple!
Ingredients
- 2 8-ounce ramekins (or 4 5-ounce ramekins)*
- 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- ¼ cup milk (almond milk for dairy free)
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 1 egg (local, if possible!)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon coconut or vegetable oil (or substitute 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- In a small bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, kosher salt, and cocoa powder. Then whisk in the milk, maple syrup, egg, vanilla, and coconut or vegetable oil. Whisk until smooth.
- Liberally grease the inside of the ramekins with oil or butter, especially the bottoms (don’t forget this part – it helps the cakes will easily slide out after baking!). Divide the mixture evenly between the ramekins.
- Here’s the hard part: bake the ramekins until just hardened on top, but still liquid in the center – between 12 to 15 minutes for larger ramekins, and around 10 minutes for smaller ramekins. The top should be just solidified (not jiggly). Test with a toothpick to make sure it is cooked but that there is still liquid on the inside. When you remove the ramekins from the oven, let them cool for a bit, then run a knife around the edge and carefully invert them onto a plate (using hot pads, as they’ll still be quite hot!).Tip Don’t worry if you overbake or underbake on your first try – we had to play with it a bit to get the right timing with our oven, but in either case they are still delicious! (Underbaking will end up with a lot of liquid whereas overbaking will have very little “lava”.)
- Serve immediately, sprinkled with powdered sugar. If desired, serve with ice cream, crème fraiche, or sweetened whipped cream.
Notes
*We’ve made this recipe using either 2 8-ounce ramekins or 4 5-ounce ramekins; you’ll just need to adapt the baking time (see below). The trick is to bake the cakes so that the outside is baked but the inside is still liquid. The timing is hard measure since all ovens and ramekins are different, so you’ll have to give it a try and adapt accordingly to your oven! You’ll want to remove the cakes when they have just solidified, but before they are cooked through. The liquidity of the honey also affects the runniness of the dough, which in turn affects the cook time.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Molten lava cake, Chocolate Desserts, Healthy Dessert Recipes, Lava Cake,
Love this! Just out of curiosity, did you find you had to adjust your liquid ingredients to make up for using honey? I’m trying to use more natural sweeteners but I’m never sure how to adjust for using liquid or dry sweeteners!
Good question! We developed this recipe specifically for using honey, so we didn’t adapt it from an original recipe with sugar.
But yes, I think you generally have to adjust the liquid in a recipe for adding honey (try this link: http://www.ehow.com/how_2110342_substitute-honey-sugar-recipe.html). Let us know if you give it a try!
It looks very delicious and elegant.
Simple things (with honey) are the best :)
I love a good lava cake, especially when it’s made perfectly like these. Great how you turned it into a healthier version, can’t wait to try this recipe!
This sounds sooooo freaking yummy!
Beautiful lava cake. Those things are sinfully delicious and yours look like no exception!! Yum.
Simply fantastic! This is my kind of dessert: whole wheat flour, unrefined sweeter, low fat… can’t wait to make these molten lava cakes!
Wow delicious! I was just looking up a recipe for molten lava cakes and clicked on your blog to check the newest posts and voila! Perfect timing!
Funny! Anything else that you need us to make for you?
I opened my e-mail, died, went to heaven, and now I’m sitting here STILL staring at these gorgeous cakes! I love, love, love that you’ve made these lava cakes with whole, natural ingredients. I’m anxious to get in the kitchen and give them a go! Thank you for the wonderful inspiration. I appreciate your approach to food – it’s much like mine – and adore your blog. :)
Haha. Thanks! You’ll have to let us know if you try them — we are hoping that our recipe works for anyone’s oven…
Beautiful! I love this healthier version of a molten lava cake!! And I really love that you put special emphasis on using local eggs and honey – both of which I use regularly and love. I’ll be trying this recipe for sure!
Thanks! Of course, healthy is a relative term, but you can never go wrong with fresh local ingredients :)
My husband and I used to go to a local restaurant and enjoy this dessert when we were dating! I’ve thought of making it at home but haven’t gotten around to it! It gives me a great idea for Valentine’s Day though!