Greetings all and Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you who celebrate. Today is that holiday dedicated to romance, and the one thing I get excited about today is chocolate. Yes, Valentine’s Day is a day where I indulge, so I’m sharing one of my favorite dessert recipes, these little melty mini chocolate cakes that bake up in ramekins in just a few minutes, and then are drizzled in decadently sweet raspberry sauce.
These make a lovely little presentation for a dinner party – but even better, you can keep the batter stored in ramekins in your fridge and bake them one at a time for your own personal chocolate dessert.
Here’s what you need for four:
For four mini chocolate cakes:
4 ramekins (6-8 oz.)
¼ cup + 2 tbsp butter
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 eggs
¼ cup sugar
2 heaping tbsp flour
fresh mint (optional garnish)
For raspberry drizzle:
12 oz. fresh raspberries
2 tbsp cornstarch
4 tbsp sugar
¼ cup water
For raspberry drizzle, rinse raspberries and set aside a dozen for garnish. Place remaining raspberries, cornstarch, sugar, and water in a saucepan and cook on low stirring constantly until raspberries dissolve, about 4-5 minutes. Strain seeds with mesh strainer (use a fork to stir and keep seeds from blocking sauce from coming out). Set aside.
Preheat oven to 400°. Generously grease bottoms of ramekins with the 2 tbsp of butter (I keep it in a stick to make it easy to spread around) then dust inside and sides of buttered ramekin with ½ tsp unsweetened cocoa per ramekin.
In a double boiler (or metal bowl set on top of a saucepan filled with 3 cups boiling water) melt ¼ cup butter and chocolate chips together stirring constantly until they form a smooth liquid, set aside to cool for 2-3 minutes.
As the chocolate mixture cools, in a separate bowl, mix eggs, sugar, and 2 tbsp raspberry drizzle. Slowly add in chocolate mixture, one third at a time. Add 2 heaping tbsp flour, whisk together. Pour mixture into ramekins set on a baking sheet.
You can bake now or store them in the refrigerator until baking, just be sure to bring them to room temperature before you put them in the oven. Bake in a 400° oven for 15 minutes for a perfectly moist center. If you want it a little more runny (or “molten”) center pull cakes out at 13 ½ or 14 minutes. (Baking time may vary slightly for different size ramekins, these are 7 ounce Corningware.)
Allow cakes to cool for 3 minutes, use a butter knife and run it around the edges of your cake, then place a dessert plate on top (upside down) and flip it to reveal your mini cake on your plate.
I also learned this handy trick on Pinterest for the easiest way to fill a piping or Ziplock bag. Simply tuck your Ziplock bag into a glass and then to fill the bag with no mess, pour your berry sauce right into the glass.
Drizzle your mini cake with raspberry sauce and garnish with fresh raspberries and mint.
Divine!
Printable recipe here.
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone, enjoy!
xoxo,
.
That looks so good!!
It reminds me of my “working” days before kids.
Our office was next to PF Changs and I was known to pop in just for the dessert.
Happy Valentines Day, thanks for sharing the recipe.
XO
Kristin
Love Molten chocolate cakes, and so much better with the addition of raspberries!
Oh my goodness! This sounds so good. Now I am torn whether to make the fruity (healthy) dessert I had picked out or this one. This just sounds so good! Even if I don’t try it today I am definitely going to have to fix it someday.
Delicious!
Happy Valentines to you an yours.
Those look amazing!! There is no better combo than chocolate and raspberry!
Recipes like this make me SO SAD my husband doesn’t like chocolate. I wonder if I could finagle a white-chocolate version…thanks for sharing!
This is great and I am definitely going to try these without a doubt. Thanks for the receipe.
I heart chocolatey, melty goodness! Looks divine.
Don’t have to tell me twice! Chocolate? Oh how I love thee. Thanks for the great tutorial, going to pin it for one my chocolate craving days {everyday}.
Mmmmm….raspberry sauce, chocolate, yum!
These look SOOOO good! My husband actually has a Chocolate Lava cake that he makes sometimes, and I think your raspberry sauce will go with it perfectly!
Chocolate? Raspberry? I’m sold! ;) Those look delicious, and as always, so nicely photographed! I stumbled upon the plastic baggie tip a few years back when “Hey Gorgeous!” was still “Pink Sugar Desserts”, and have been hooked ever since. I can’t think of an easier way to drizzle stuff!
This looks decadent! I am a girl who cannot resist chocolate and this will be a nice treat for my hubby tonight. I think I have everything on hand. Chocolate and raspberry is a yummy combination. Thanks for sharing your recipe and Happy Valentine’s Day to you, Kate!
I LOVE Raspberry chocolate! that looks yummy. While I’m a cooker, but not so much of a baker. May be I’ll give this a shot. Thanks! Happy Valentine!
Your Canadian followers celebrate V-Day just as heartily as our southern neighbours =)
The dessert looks delish….we’re going with hub’s fave tonight (homemade Carrot cake with a hearty layer of cream cheese icing) =)
AWESOME!!! looks easy, lovely but fancy, too! Thanks, Kate and happy Valentine’s day to you and your family! i just ur blog!!!! so much to learn!
woops..i just “LOVE” ur blog!! missing from above! :)
That looks so yummy! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Love, Love this and we had it with our supper tonight and it is now a keeper.
This looks delicious! Thanks for sharing! Now I have a real reason to beg to buy some ramekins! LOL
I made this for dessert tonight and it was amazing – thank you for posting it!!
So glad to read this Kristen and Kate, you both work fast! Yes they are divine, so happy you enjoyed the recipe!!
Kate
Yep, life doesn’t much better than this !
Just a few notes: the dough has raw eggs in it, so I wouldn’t store it too long, even in the fridge. A few hours is totally ok though.
I found a tip that I love in a cookbook, to make a perfect fondant in the middle: just add a chunk of pure chocolate. As the cake cooks, the chocolate will slowly melt. I’ve tried it: perfect fondant ! Hot chocolate and strawberries… yes, that’s heaven.
Another tip from French chef Michel Bras is to add a bit of frozen chocolate filling. I’ve never tried this one, but I mean to: you prepare a classic chocolate filling (like chocolate and cream) and put it in the freezer. When you cook the cake, it melts slowly and again: fondant, but on the chunky side.
And now I’m hungry…
wow.. looks wonderful. Thanks for sharing :)
This is pretty and looks delicious. Thanks!
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Karen
This recipe is definitely one for my recipe file…Thank you so much..I love the combination of chocolate and raspberry…my favorite!
Omg I made this yesterday night and it was the perfect finishing touch for our Valentine’s Day dinner! Soooo delicious, thank you for the recipe! However one twist, I made mine with blackberries! Yummy!!!
Ahhh! You’re making me hungry! This might be the perfect post-race recovery meal after the half marathon this weekend. :) Thanks for posting all the details.
xoxo,
CA
I printed this one Kate..I love lava cakes..and with raspberries..YUM
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I made it for dessert on Valentine’s Day, and it was perfect. I particularly liked this recipe because it was simply, didn’t take much time to do, and very easy to make into a gluten-friendly recipe. I can’t eat gluten but love desserts, so it gets tricky. I just substituted the regular flour with Cup4Cup (gluten free flour), which made it a little more spongey but still really good! The chocolate/raspberry combination made for a lovely end to a lovely meal.
Yummy! Looks great!!