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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Can I use compound chocolate for this recipe? Just making sure before I mess it up.
Hi Alina, yes you can
Could have done with a bit more chocokate in the brownie mixture. However it was a good brownie base and turned out the way brownies should, thankyou for helping me make birthday brownies for my boyfriend..unfortunately was too hot for the inside bit so I can’t comment on that.
Happy baking ! 🙂
Do u measure in cups or units
Units. She’s Australian so she uses metric
I am using boxed brownie. And the rest all as you did. To make it easy. I need to figure out how to temper chocolate though.
She has a chocolate secrets video on youtube
Cool recipe I am going to use it and I just wrote it in my recipe book because I want to be a baker when I grow older so thank you for the recipe!
Go for it Akilah!
Hi this cake was so delicious ? thanks for sharing this recipe ?
Thats great Sarah.
How many calories does 1 piece of this have????? Please tell me ????
Made this lava cake for my family today. Safe to say, they were impressed. Thanks for the great recipe, Ann.
Thanks Matea!
Approximately how long will this take?
Hi Ann from Debbie in Austin, Texas. Made your chocolate lava dessert for a Valentine’s Day dinner last night and it was “magical”. So many wows from the table as each person waited for their chocolate disk to melt into the center. Fun recipe. I doubled the recipe, made brownie in a large sheet pan 12″x18″ lined with parchment as you suggested. Was able to get 12 brownie circles. Lots of nibble leftovers to enjoy today. Thanks for sharing!
That is great to hear Debbie. Thanks for the feedback.
How long will it take to finish completely? I’m doing this recipe in my mock exams.
Hi, just wondering wether or not you are able to freeze the chocolate brownies and the sauce by any chance?
Are you thinking of freezing them after cooking? If so, then you could but the reheated dessert wont be as good.
How long does it usually have to bake in the oven?
Hi Abby, It will depend on the size of your serves and your oven. You should check them at around 20 mins.
Excellent recepy. This blog has a lot of information. I’ll definitely try
How can I reheat the brownies so they would still be as good?
Hi No, Just warm gently in the microwave, though they will always be best fresh!
Hello, I just wanted to know, how long would this brownie approximately take cook in the oven?
Hi Jevons, 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 there, just wondering around how long this takes to make?
Hey Ann, how many deserts does this make?
Hi Beau. It will make 6-8 depending on the size of your circle cutter.
How many desserts will this make?
Hi Jessica, It will make 6-8 serves depending on the size of your cutter.
Hi Ann! I’m just wondering if instead of a circle cut-out for the brownie section, I can use a heart cookie cutter so that the chocolate disk is shaped into a heart… Can I use that instead?
Thanks, Apple
Yes Apple of course you can. It should look great.