Magic Chocolate Lava Cake Recipe | Chocolate Fondant
Step 1: Serve the dessert to the guests at the table.
Step 2: Add some hot chocolate sauce.
Step 3: The sauce magically drops down into the middle of the dessert.
Step 4: Take a spoonful and chocolate ganache oozes out of the centre like molten lava onto the cold plate.
Sydney is home to some great chefs, one of them Peter Gilmore came up with this impressive chocolate dessert idea. The real thing has 8 different textures and will set you back $175 to try it as part of his set menu at his restaurant Quay. I have greatly simplified the idea for you but kept the ‘magic’ and added lava. This recipe makes 6-8 lava cake desserts depending on the size you cut your circles.
Chocolate Lava Cake recipe
Chocolate Discs
140g (4.94 ounces) tempered chocolate
Chocolate Brownie Base
300g (10.58 ounces) or 1 1/3 cups plus 2 tspns butter or margarine
6 eggs
3 cups or 654g (23.07 ounces) sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
dash of marsala (optional)
3/4 cup or 90g (3.17 ounces) cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups or 360g (12.7 ounces) plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
(optional – you can add nuts, dried fruit or chocolate chips)
Line a baking tin 26cm (10.24 inches) x 38cm (14.96 inches) with baking paper, if your tin is not deep use the baking paper to make a wall around the edge and staple into place. This prevents it overflowing in the oven.
Melt butter in the microwave, beat in sugar, eggs, cocoa, flour and baking powder until just combined.
Add the vanilla and marsala, pour into baking tray and sprinkle with chopped chocolate or nuts.
Bake at 356°F (180 degrees Celsius) (or 180°C (356 degrees Fahrenheit)) until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean
Ganache
200g (7.05 ounces) milk chocolate
80g (2.82 ounces) dark chocolate
100millilitres (3.38 fluid ounces) cream (if you can’t get hold of cream you can use milk but use slightly less)
Place chocolate pieces in a bowl, melt the chocolate (if using a microwave be careful not to burn it, do 30 seconds, stir, 20 seconds, stir, 10 secs stir then 10 secs until melted). Then pour in your cream and keep stirring until it comes together to make a nice smooth ganache.
Make sure your ganache is warm when you place it on the dessert.
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How many servings does this recipe make?
By the way I love you YouTube channel
Hi Ariana, The recipe should make about six serves
Can you use sweetend coconut?
Hi Clem, If you are taking about adding grated or desiccatted coconut as you might add nuts and fruit, then yes you can.
Hi Ann, if I prepare the brownies and chocolate disc earlier, how long can I refrigerate for in order for the ganache to still have the melting lava effect?
Hi Bee, if you prepare the day earlier, the dessert should still taste great and work well. Just make sure your ganache is nice and warm.
I love your Magic Chocolate Lava Cake it sounds and looks AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How do you remove the tempered chocolate disc safely from the foil it breaks kinda easily after I try and push it from the edge is there a trick to it or have I just not waited long enough ?
hi Ann,
just wondering how many this dessert makes thanks love your channel i have watched every single video i am only 11 almost 12 but i still love to cook and you are a huge inspiration to me so pleeeaaassseee if you could tell me how many this recipe makes i would love that
Hi Jorja, This recipe will make at least 6 portions.
I would like to know if I could use less sugar? If yes, how much?
Hi noob, you would need to experiment with this to ensure the finished dessert had a flavour and texture that you were happy with. The quantities in the recipe are designed to work together, so sometimes changing one thing may really effect the whole recipe. You could try reducing the sugar by half a cup and see if you are happy with the results.
Hi
IM a big fan
how can you reheat the ganache without burning it
Hi Noura, You can rewarm it gently in the microwave.
about how long do you bake the brownies for?
about how long do you cook it for?
Hi Anne marie, Bake the Chocolate Lava Cake at 356°F (or 180°C) until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. The time it takes will vary depending on your oven. Ann recommends checking from 15minutes onwards.
Hi Ann , thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe with us , actually i did the chocolate brownies base and it turned out just awesome and yummy ….. Thank you again
Thanks Niema, glad you enjoyed it.
Can u plz tell me how long I should put it in the oven for!???
I’m making it tmrw for a birthday part an I really would like to kno
Thanxs very much xxxx
Thanx For Sharing this wonderful recipes. I made it and it was so yummy.Everyone loved this delicious lava chocolate cake,your cake looks so yummy, also i like your concept and Dam sure I will be making this again!
That is great to hear Nasha. Did you grab any photos??
My first attempt went more than wrong, i didn’t need as much as the recipe said so i cut everything in half but it came out way way to oily (im guessing too much butter). can someone tell me where i went wrong? what i used for the brownies:
3/4 cup margarine
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1.5/4 cups cocoa powder
2.5/4 cups flour and 3/4 tsp baking powder
Hi Ali, looking at these quantities, you look a bit low on your flour. It should be about 3/4 a US cup. you also only need about 300g of eggs. That would be 3 small eggs or 2 larger ones. You may need to drop an egg from your quantities.
Hello, Ann! I was just wondering how many servings this dessert will make? This recipe uses a lot of stuff so I was wondering if I could have but, I still want a few lava cakes.
Hi anna your recipe is wonderful, but can i use a round cup to make the cake, or do i have to do it i a pan? and how many minutes for it to bake?
thank you =)
Hello Anne! I just wanted to ask how long you baked the brownie base for. Thank you!
Hi Salma, ovens and tray sizes mean that the baking time can vary widely. Ann recommends to start checking it after 15 minutes.
Hi I have a really good tip for this recipe. So buy very small bunt pans or pans in a tray of 6 than you won’t have to go through the trouble of having to wait for the cake to cool than cut out the shapes. This works really good I used it
DEAR ANN DO U HAVE TO USE COCOA POWDER??
Hi Cynthia, If you want to make it a delicious chocolate lava cake then yes you will need Cocoa powder. Is it that you would prefer not to have a chocolate cake and would perhaps like a different type of cake for your base?
hi, i was just wondering, when the ganache recipe is written, does the dark chocolate need to be done twice? because in the video Ann says how she uses milk and dark, but if i only use dark do i need to do it twice or just once?
Hi Taiga, I am not sure what you mean by the chocolate being done twice. To make the ganache, you melt all the chocolate in the microwave in short bursts as Ann describes in the video, then stir in your cream. You can use whatever type of chocolate you prefer.
HI Anna, I read you recipe and I think is wonderful, just one question, the powder chocolates needs to be sweet? Because I have the Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa. What do you recommend me? Thank you so much 🙂
Hi Alejandra, The powdered cocoa doesn’t need to be sweetened. The Hershey’s one should be fine.
thanks 🙂