Molten Lava Cakes

Last summer Nick discovered the show Master Chef.  Nick and I love this show (Surprisingly Nick likes it even more than me!).  Anyway, the other week for one of their challenges they had to make a chocolate lava cake cooked to perfection.  They have to make everything from memory but luckily I had a recipe from ourbestbites.com to follow but of course I altered it just a bit and made it smaller since this type of dessert is to be eaten right away.  It is pretty much the best dessert because you have the chocolate, brownie batter (I LOVE batter... always leave extra in the bowl), ice cream, and fruit!  These are individual molten lava cakes for two! If you are not up for a big dessert I suggest splitting because Warning or (to those like me) Good News: very rich!

INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp butter
1/6 c sugar
2 medium eggs
1/6 c flour
1/8 tsp salt
2/3 c semisweet chocolate chips


DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 2 ramekins with butter using wax paper. Sprinkle with granulated sugar to coat the entire surface of the ramekin and discard extra sugar.

In a medium sized bowl beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Slowly add flour and salt and mix until just combined.

Melt chocolate chips in microwave in 30 second increments until melted.  Add melted chocolate to mixture. Divide batter evenly among prepared ramekins and then place on a baking sheet.  Fill about 3/4 full.

Place baking sheet with ramekins in oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Run a sharp knife along the edge of the ramekin and then invert cake onto a plate.  Dust with powdered  sugar and top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and fresh fruit. (You can also just eat it right out of the ramekin.)

Topped with bananas and a side of French Vanilla Tillamook ice cream (best ice cream but only sold in Utah at WinCo).

Check out that chocolate lava!  Although my cake didn't collapse by itself on the plate the lava should be a smidgen thicker.  Next time I'll cook it another minute longer.

–Melanie