February | 2016 | Is this a keeper?

The most common reaction I got from this dessert…”I had to stop myself from licking the cup”. If that doesn’t sum it up, I don’t know what would!! I didn’t actually get to have one of these, since once again it is Lent and I gave up desserts, but…from what I heard, these were amazing!

I was very surprised these went over so well since the Vanilla Mango Panna Cotta was a hit or miss sort of thing. I think half of my tasters liked that one and half didn’t care for it at all. It seems the “Hot Chocolate” part, made all the difference. 🙂 Everyone reported back this was more like a mousse than anything…and…light and not too sweet.

These were super easy to make and…I like that when thinking which of these desserts would be good to use for entertaining. As my Dad said…we have been on quite a roll with good recipes lately!! Onto the next ones!!

The recipe calls these “Soft-Centered Chocolate Teacup Cakes” but here where I live, we call them Chocolate Lava Cakes….whatever you want to call them, they were delicious!

Here is what I learned:

I had no ovenproof bakeware so I bought some…4 of them at 4oz. Slightly smaller than the 6oz the recipe calls for. Interestingly enough, the 4oz was a perfect size to eat and some of us even shared this size. With the leftover batter I used one of my mini individual tart pans which worked just fine. I will buy 2 more of the 4oz so I can make 6 at a time.
Yes to “adding the teensy bit of crunch”…of course, given the option, I dusted the interior with some granulated sugar and even if you can’t taste it, it was pretty. 🙂
I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chips for the cake batter and some of the baking bar for the molten lava. Super easy to melt and delicious.
We all agreed these were chocolately but not overly sweet. It was the perfect combination with a delicious result.
I baked mine for the full 12 minutes making sure we didn’t have runny insides. It was perfect, the cake was set and the chocolate melted.

My tasters LOVED this one.

Per my dad…

“Wow! That lava cake just shot up to the top 5. Love the chunks of chocolate hidden in the cake. Another keeper”
Did you heat it or eat it at room temp?…
“I couldn’t wait, I ate it at room temp”

My tasters ate it a variety of ways: heated, room temp, with whipped cream, plain, with ice cream. It didn’t seem to matter…everyone loved it and said it was a total keeper.