Paula Deen's Molten Lava Cakes

For such a fancy looking dessert, these are sure easy to make. No mixer needed. I just used a rubber spatula, a 8 cup Pyrex measuring cup and stirred it all by hand. I doubled the recipe below and used jumbo muffin pans - I filled 12 in all. I let the cakes totally cool before flipping them out of the pan. Good thing I made 2 pans because the first 6 did not release so well. The next pan I really ran a knife around the edge of the cakes really well before inverting. Those came out perfect. I inverted the cakes onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and then gently placed each one, using a metal spatula, onto a serving plate. I'm not serving these till later tonight so I covered each plate with plastic wrap. I will probably microwave each individual cake for about 10-20 seconds before serving it with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Maybe a drizzle of raspberry sauce or chocolate sauce. The microwave should return the center of each cake to warm lava again. It's still "pudding like" in the center, when it's cool, but I want it to run out onto the plate. These photos are from one of the cakes that did not come out so well. I cannot tell you enough how simple these were! You must try these! I made mine with part milk chocolate because most of them will be eaten by small children and they prefer the sweeter chocolate. They are still plenty dark. The chocolate I used was mainly chocolate chips and they worked fine. I ran out of the bar chocolate so that's why I turned to the chips. One thing I must mention - you must train yourself to take these gooey cakes out of the oven way before you want to. They looked almost sloshy in the middle still when I removed them from the oven. I wanted so badly to push them back in and bake longer. But I resisted. After they sat and cooled, they sank in the middle. The edges were set and slightly crunchy but the middle was nice and gooey & lava like. So resist baking them too long! Mine were not wet on top when I touched them. The very top had set but just beneath the surface, they were obviously runny still.

Hint: Be sure to spray your cups or pans well with Pam for better release!

So this recipe is definitely one you should whip up when you want to impress your guests. Anyone can throw this together. If you plan on doubling the recipe like I did, beware that it takes ONE DOZEN eggs! Wow!

Molten Lava Cakes

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Ingredients

• 6 (1-ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate
• 2 (1-ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons orange liqueur (I did not add this)

Directions Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease 6 (6-ounce) custard cups. Melt the chocolates and butter in the microwave, or in a double boiler. Add the flour and sugar to chocolate mixture. Stir in the eggs and yolks until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and orange liqueur. Divide the batter evenly among the custard cups. Place in the oven and bake for 14 minutes. The edges should be firm but the center will be runny. Run a knife around the edges to loosen and invert onto dessert plates.