It was my husbands birthday recently. He’s not a cake lover or much of a sweets lover at all really. He does love gooey brownies and chocolate chip cookies though. When we went on cruise once years ago, he discovered molten chocolate cakes. They were available at dinner every night so we had one every day of the cruise. When we got home I found a recipe and have made them occasionally for the last 8 years. Ive tried a couple different ways to make this type of thing and this is my favorite.

This recipe has cinnamon in it and I kind of love that. You could always omit it if you prefer a more traditional chocolate flavor. I also like adding a little cayenne to brownies and things sometimes to make it slightly spicy! But if you decide to, don’t add too much! 

Overall this is a pretty simple recipe. The only part that I would say could be delicate is the “folding in” part. If that’s not something you’ve done before, I just try to stir slowly from the outside into the middle. Almost as if I was literally trying to fold what is on the bottom and sides of the bowl into the center. I hope that makes sense... 

You will need small oven safe bowls, ramekins, for these cakes. As you can see I have an assortment of them. This recipe should fit in about 8 - 4oz bowls, but a lot of my bowls are different sizes so I only used 7. 

A stand mixer is pretty useful with this recipe, my eggs whipped for probably 6 minutes or more. Obviously you could do that with a hand mixer but the stand mixer really helps.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

8 tablespoons butter + some for coating bowls

1 cup sugar + some for coating bowls

10 ounces semisweet chocolate

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

2 tablespoons all- purpose flour

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Coat your bowls with butter and add 1 tablespoon of sugar into one of your bowls. Swirl to coat, then tap out the excess sugar into another bowl. Do this until all of the bowls have been coated.
2. In a double boiler, over medium low heat, combine butter and chocolate. Stir occasionally, until melted and combined. Fold in the vanilla extract and cinnamon. Let cool.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk, add the eggs, egg yolk, and sugar. Mix on medium until the eggs triple in volume. Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the eggs (in small amounts at first until they are the same temperature). 
4. Sift the flour into the bowl and gently fold to incorporate, being careful not to deflate the eggs. Pour the batter into the bowls. Bake until the tops are set but the center wiggles slightly when lightly shaken, about 18 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately, dusted with powdered sugar or serve with whipped cream.