LAVA CAKES WITH RASPBERRY SAUCE

The first thing I look for on any dessert menu is lava or molten chocolate cake. It’s one of my favorite desserts, and now it can be easily recreated in less than 20 minutes.

The mini lava cakes are easy to make, bake in a flash, and best of all, have warm, overflowing centers. I've also included my recipe for raspberry sauce, which provides a fruity balance to the rich chocolate flavor. 

INGREDIENTS:

For the raspberry sauce:
1 cup raspberries
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons sugar

For the lava cakes:
2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed
1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
5 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

For the raspberry sauce:
Combine the raspberries, water and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.

Bring the mixture a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until thickened, stirring frequently to break apart the raspberries.

Once the mixture has thickened, set it aside to cool while you make the chocolate lava cakes.

For the lava cakes:
Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil.

Place the butter and chocolate chips in a smaller saucepan then melt the ingredients by holding the smaller saucepan over the pan of boiling water, forming a double-boiler. Stir the ingredients constantly until smooth then set the mixture aside to cool slightly.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the eggs, sugar and salt until the sugar dissolves.

Quickly whisk the egg mixture into the melted chocolate, and then whisk in the flour.

Line a muffin tin with paper cupcake cups coated with cooking spray.

Divide the batter equally among the 12 cups and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, just until the edges of the cakes are firm and the centers and still liquid.

Remove the pan from the oven and let the cakes cool for 5 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the muffin tin, remove the paper lining and serve topped with raspberry sauce.

with icing from Cake$ and Bake$..!!