Chocolate Lava Cake with Coulis aux Framboises

Just in case you haven’t heard, today, January 27, 2011 is National Chocolate Cake Day! I happen to be a huge chocolate cake fan. And I thought it would be fun to celebrate National Chocolate Cake Day with a new recipe. I have wanted to try baking a Lava Cake for a while but always assumed it was very difficult. Turns out, that was a huge misconception. This recipe is simple and guaranteed to impress dinner guests or chocolate cake aficionados.

Chocolate Lava Cake

• 6 oz. of 70% Cacao or Higher Chocolate (Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate will also work)
• 12 tbsp butter, chopped and at room temperature, plus a little extra to grease ramekins
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup Pamela’s Ultimate Baking Mix
• 4 – 6 small to medium sized ramekins

Coulis aux Framboises

• 1 small package of raspberries
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
• 3/4 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp Chambord
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Break chocolate into chunks, then place in a bain-marie or double boiler over moderate heat and stir until completely melted. Reduce heat to low, add butter, stir until melted, and remove from heat. In a separate bowl combine sugar and eggs. Beat until they start to whiten. (Alternatively, you could do this in a mixer while melting the chocolate and butter.) Slowly add the melted butter and chocolate combination to the egg mixture. Add the Pamela’s Ultimate Baking Mix and stir until everything is combined. Butter ramekins and divide mixture between the separate dishes.You will need 4-6 depending on the size of the ramekin.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or longer if you do not want your cakes runny. If you are using very small ramekins 10 minutes will work. We took some out at 15 minutes and others at 20 to see the difference in texture. Both times produced a nice cake, but 15 minutes was much more runny.

The Coulis aux Framboises adds great flavor and decoration to the lava cake, although you can certainly serve the lava cake solo if you’re not a raspberry fan. Add the raspberries, vanilla and sugar into a small sauce pan over medium-high heat. Stir and mash the raspberries and bring to a boil. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until the mixture has reduced 1/3 in volume. Remove from heat and strain the seeds by pushing the pulp through a strainer. Decorate the plate and cake with the Coulis aux Framboises. I left it off the cake for the picture, but it was great served over the hot lava cake.

Serve the lava cakes immediately after baking (well, you can wait 10-20 minutes for the ramekins to cool). If you want to prepare the cake batter ahead of time and bake later in the day it will still turn out OK. However, you might have to adjust the baking time since the batter will be cool instead of warm.

Serves 4-6

This recipe is a submission in Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten-Free.