Chocolate Fondant (Molten Lava Cake)

Chocolate fondant is one of my all-time favorite desserts – comforting, rich, and gooey with an irresistible molten chocolate center. These individually served chocolate desserts are easy to make and will have everyone comes back for seconds!

This dessert goes by many names: molten lava cake, fallen cakes, or fondants. It has always been my personal favorite dessert. If you love chocolate as much as I do, you are going to LOVE these chocolate fondants. The outside is a solid chocolate cake and inside is gooey, runny, warm chocolatey goodness.

The cakes are neither cakey nor dry. The fondant is super fudgy and tastes incredible. Every bite is dreamy, delightful, and decadent.

How to make chocolate fondant

1. Melt together chocolate and butter, either in the microwave in 20-seconds intervals or in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Once melted, remove bowl from heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, egg yolks and sugar until well combined. Add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture and mix until combined. Add vanilla, salt, and flour and fold just until smooth.
3. Divide batter into ramekins and bake for 9-12 minutes, until a thin crust has developed on top of the cake and the center jiggles slightly when gently shaken. If you want to loosen the cakes from the ramekins, immediately run a thin knife around the edges and invert onto serving plates. Let the ramekins sit for a few seconds, then gently lift them off. Serve immediately.
4. Dust with powdered sugar or cocoa powder or serve with whipped cream or 3-ingredient vanilla ice cream if you like.

Note: Bake chocolate fondants right before you plan on serving them. Serve immediately.

Tips for making chocolate fondant

• You can add anything from peanut butter to Nutella to salted caramel to chopped white chocolate to the filling. However, don’t use chocolate chips because they won’t stay melted. Simply fill ⅔ of your ramekins with batter, place 1 heaping teaspoon of spread or 2-3 chocolate pieces in the center, then fill with the remaining ⅓ batter.
• Use good quality chocolate. The better the quality, the better your molten lava cakes will taste.
• Baking time. Making lava cakes is simple and doesn’t require any special skills, but if there’s one challenging thing about them, it’s TIMING. Even 30 seconds can make or break these cakes. An over baked fondant will become dry and more like regular cake. If you have never tried a fondant before, I strongly suggest testing one in the oven before putting them all in, just to see how long it takes it to bake to the perfect texture. It might take a few tries to get this right, but don’t get discouraged! The result is worth it.

More of my favorite chocolate desserts

• Double Chocolate Muffins: Super moist, chocolatey, and full of chocolate chips.
• Chocolate Pudding Cake: Another amazing warm, gooey, chocolatey fudgy desert.
• Chocolate Birthday Cake: My favorite chocolate cake topped with rich chocolate ganache (or whatever frosting you choose!).
• Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake: Made with ground hazelnuts and Creamy Nutella, this fudgy cake is unlike any other.

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Chocolate Fondant (Molten Lava Cake)

Chocolate fondant is my all-time favorite dessert – comforting, rich, and gooey with an irresistible molten chocolate center.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Total Time 22 minutes

YIELD 6 servings

Ingredients

• 150 g (5.3oz) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
• ½ cup (1 stick/113g) unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing the ramekins
• 2 large eggs, plus 2 egg yolks (or 3 large whole eggs)
• ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional)
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup (35g) all-purpose flour, sifted

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C. Generously butter 6 ramekins and dust with cocoa powder, tapping the ramekins slightly to remove any excess.

2. Melt together chocolate and butter, either in the microwave in 20-seconds intervals or in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Once melted, remove bowl from heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, egg yolks and sugar until well combined. Add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture and mix until combined. Add vanilla, salt, and flour and fold just until smooth.
4. Divide batter into ramekins and bake for 9-12 minutes, until a thin crust has developed on top of the cake and the center jiggles slightly when gently shaken. If you want to loosen cakes from the ramekins, immediately run a thin knife around the edges and invert onto serving plates. Let the ramekins sit for a few seconds, then gently lift them off. Serve immediately. Dust with powdered sugar or cocoa powder or serve with whipped cream or ice cream if you like.