This decadent, rich, fudgy, and easy-to-make Eggless Chocolate Lava Cake is so delicious and comes together with 8 simple ingredients.
Ready in just 20 minutes, this easy dessert recipe is melt-in-your plate and mouth perfection and always impresses! Serve with ice cream and berries for an indulgent Mother’s day treat.
Mothers Day is in just 2 days. So I thought of sharing an easy-to-make and pretty-to-look at dessert recipe – Chocolate Lava Cake for all the wonderful moms out there. <3
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What is Chocolate Lava Cake?
Lava chocolate cake is a popular dessert that combines the elements of a chocolate cake and a souffle. Its name derives from the dessert’s liquidy chocolate center that’s why it is known as a chocolate lava cake.
They are usually prepared with egg, flour, cocoa powder, oil, sugar, and flavorings. But I am sharing an eggless version.
This cake is so easy to make, you can get the batter done in like 5 minutes and then the baking time is also only 15 minutes.
This is one of those kinds of quick dessert recipes in which you do not require to stay in the kitchen for a long time.
Plus they look so fancy and gorgeous.
I have been testing this recipe for 2 years (I know it’s a quite long time). I wanted to make this in my Instant Pot.
Last year on Mother’s day, I tried this recipe like 15 times to get it perfect. One batch after another but no luck.
Finally, after so many rounds of testing, I am happy to share a version that works well. It uses very basic ingredients. But I yet to try this Lava Cake on Instant Pot. Pretty soon I will try it and update this post.
The beauty of this recipe is you can also make these in advance.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- It requires only 8 ingredients! They are all basic pantry staples and I am sure you have them on hand right now!
- Quick To Throw Together
- You Can Make Them Ahead Of Time
- Loved by all ages
- Perfect for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s day, or any occasion.
Ingredients required
- All-purpose flour – I have never tried making this lava cake with whole wheat flour so can’t tell if it works or not.
- Cocoa powder – Use high-quality cocoa powder (I used Ghiradelli). This is the main flavor and you will taste the difference when using a better ingredient. Also, the cocoa powder that I used was unsweetened.
- Sugar – Use very fine granulated, caster sugar or powdered sugar. Brown sugar works fine too.
- Whole Milk – Use whole milk/full-fat milk only for this recipe. If you want to make this vegan, you can use coconut milk or almond milk.
- Vanilla extract – Instead of vanilla, you can add other flavors like orange zest or any extract of your choice.
- Oil – Makes the cake moist and stays moist longer. Any flavorless oil works here like vegetable oil, canola oil, avocado oil, etc. I have used canola oil.
- Baking powder – works as a leavening agent that helps the cake to rise when baked.
- Coffee – Coffee simply enhances the flavor of chocolate. This cake deepens that rich, chocolatey flavor. If you don’t want to use coffee, you can skip it.
- Salt – It enhances the flavor of the other ingredients.
How to make this Eggless Chocolate Lava Cake? Step by step process
Prep work
Preheat the oven at 375 degrees F. (190 degrees C.).
Take 3 – 6 OZ. ramekins. Apply oil/butter very well inside the ramekins (don’t miss the edges, cover everything)
Now dust it with cocoa powder. Again cover edges and every part inside the ramekins. This step is really important.
Make the batter
Sieve flour, cocoa powder, coffee powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
Now add sugar. Mix well.
Add milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk everything together and make a lump-free batter (Don’t over mix the batter.
Fill the ¾ of the 3 ramekins. (after filling the batter, you might be left with 1 to 2 tablespoon of extra batter. Fill it in a small container and bake for few minutes. But don’t over-fill the ramekins).
Baking
Take all the ramekins in a baking tray and place them in the preheated oven.
Bake it for 15 to 17 minutes. I baked for exactly 15 minutes but every oven is different so your time may vary. (Check note no. 2)
Remove the cakes from the oven and let sit at room temperature for 2 minutes (to get the most flow of lava, don’t let it rest more time).
Using a kitchen towel or gloves, carefully hold the ramekins and invert them on the serving plate. You can also serve straight in the ramekins, there’s no need to invert them.
Top with Vanilla ice cream, place berries and mint leaves on the side, serve, and eggless chocolate lava cake.
Pro-tips and Quick FAQs
- The recipe can be doubled.
- Baking time is so very dependent on the size of the container that you are using. Please don’t think that the time will be the same with every container. The 6 oz ramekins that I used baked perfectly for me at 375 F degrees (190 Degree C) for 15 minutes. Since the timing can vary depending on the size of your ramekins so much, it might be a good idea to make a test 1 ramekins first and then see how it comes out. That will ensure that you bake these for just the correct time every time!
- Fill only ¾ of the container/ramekins with batter.
- Allow the lava cake to cool about a minute or two, not more than that. Then invert them onto a plate.
- Very important – Make sure to grease your ramekins WELL with butter/oil and cocoa powder so they can be easily released.
- The bake time will change based on your ramekins and oven’s size, so it’s a good idea to do a test batch before you serve to your family.
I haven’t used any chocolate bars in the center to give the lava effect. It is the batter that has warmed during baking but hasn’t fully set. The key is to bake just until the sides are set but the inside is still liquidy like molten. Don’t worry, it won’t be undercooked. The lava chocolate flow is quite warm so it is cooked through but not enough to set like a cake.
If you don’t have ramekins, you can use a muffin pan: Grease 6 muffin pan cups and dust with cocoa powder to prevent the lava cakes from sticking. Your lava cakes will be slightly smaller– you’ll get 6 lava cakes instead of 3. Bake at the same temperature for 8-10 minutes (depending on the size of the tray cavity). Use a spoon to release the cakes from the pan and place each upside down on plates.
So telling when a lava cake is done can be tricky. To get that lava in the center, It has to be under-baked slightly. The edges of the cakes become firm while the center will still have some jiggle to it.
If there is no lava, Here are some reasons-
Overbaked the cake. If you bake them more, the inside sets and then there’s no lava. Every minute is crucial. If you overbaked the cake, the good news is you can still eat it. It won’t go to waste.
Oven temperature settings are off. Every oven temperature is different. So it’s a good idea to test one batch and then move forward with the rest.
Over-mixed the batter.
Make sure not to under-bake the cake and take them out too quickly from the oven, they won’t be able to hold their shape and you will have like a chocolate pudding with lots of lava.
If this happens, serve it in the ramekins itself.
These can last 1 to 2 days at room temperature. Cover it in an airtight container so they do not dry out.
You can make the batter up to a day or 2 in advance. Place the batter into the ramekins, and then cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until ready to bake. Remove plastic wrap, allow to come to room temperature, and bake.
You can freeze them. Allow to cool completely and wrap well. Freeze for up to 3 months. You can reheat in the microwave. But you might not get the same lava effect as freshly made.
My favorite wat to serve is with Vanilla ice cream and few berries. But You can also serve it with
Whipped cream
Ganache or chocolate cream
Dust with little Powdered sugar
Hungry for more desserts?
- Strawberry Cheesecake Tacos
- Mahalabia Recipe
- Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake
- Mini No-Bake Caramel Cheesecakes Chocolate Truffle
- 3 Ingredient Tiger Butter Fudge
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Eggless Chocolate Lava Cake
Ingredients
- 75 g All Purpose Flour approx ½ cup+1 tbsp
- 90 g Fine Sugar Caster Sugar (Approx ¼ cup + 3 tbsp)
- 35 g Cocoa Powder Aprrox ¼ cup+3 tbsp
- Pinch of Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Instant Coffee
- 60 mL canola oil approx. ¼ cup
- 200 mL Milk approx ¾ cup+2 tbsp
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoon cocoa powder and some oil for greasing the container
Vanilla ice-cream, berries and mint for serving.
Instructions
Prep work
- Preheat the oven at 375 degrees F. (190 degrees C.).
- Take 3 – 6 OZ. ramekins. Apply oil/butter very well inside the ramekins (don’t miss the edges, cover everything)
- Now dust it with cocoa powder. Again cover edges and every part inside the ramekins. This step is really important.
Make the batter
- Sieve flour, cocoa powder, coffee powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
- Now add sugar. Mix well.
- Add milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Whisk everything together and make a lump-free batter (Don’t over mix the batter.
- Fill the ¾ of the 3 ramekins. (after filling the batter, you might be left with 1 to 2 tablespoon of extra batter. Fill it in a small container and bake for few minutes. But don’t over-fill the ramekins).
Baking
- Take all the ramekins in a baking tray and place them in the preheated oven.
- Bake it for 15 to 17 minutes. I baked for exactly 15 minutes but every oven is different so your time may vary. (Check note no. 2)
- Remove the cakes from the oven and let sit at room temperature for 2 minutes (to get the most flow of lava, don’t let it rest more time).
- Using a kitchen towel or gloves, carefully hold the ramekins and invert them on the serving plate. You can also serve straight in the ramekins, there’s no need to invert them.
- Top with Vanilla ice cream, place berries and mint leaves on the side, serve, and eggless chocolate lava cake.
Video
Notes
- The recipe can be doubled.
- Baking time is so very dependent on the size of the container that you are using. Please don’t think that the time will be the same with every container. The 6 oz ramekins that I used baked perfectly for me at 375 F degrees (190 Degree C) for 15 minutes. Since the timing can vary depending on the size of your ramekins so much, it might be a good idea to make a test 1 ramekins first and then see how it comes out. That will ensure that you bake these for just the correct time every time!
- Fill only ¾ of the container/ramekins with batter.
- Allow the lava cake to cool about a minute or two, not more than that. Then invert them onto a plate.
- Very important – Make sure to grease your ramekins WELL with butter/oil and cocoa powder so they can be easily released.
- The bake time will change based on your ramekins and oven’s size, so it’s a good idea to do a test batch before you serve to your family.
- For Quick FAQs, please read the blog post, above the recipe card.
Nutrition
Warm regards,
Dhwani.
I made it today on Mon=ther’s Day and it turned out amazing. Thank you so much for easy yummy recipe.
SO glad to hear Dhaemishtha.. 🙂