Happy chocolate day!!

Like an extremely large portion of the world population I am a big chocolate lover, so when I found out there was such a thing as “World Chocolate Day” I decided it was time to share with you one of my favourite chocolate deserts, the chocolaty-est of them all: the molten cake.

I eat chocolate almost everyday, usually it is with my tea after dinner, I always take a piece or two of dark chocolate. It makes me feel like I had a proper chocolate desert and it usually calms my craving for chocolate. In my opinion, molten chocolate cake is the chocolate cake, it’s gooey, smooth, saucy; super comforting. It’s so chocolaty, it can satisfy your chocolate craving for at least a week.

I have made so many molten chocolate cakes and failed so many times but it allowed me to improve my recipe and technique. Now I am very happy with it! If you follow the steps, you will end up with a perfectly cooked chocolate cake and a melting almondy and orange blossom-y silky centre.

Enjoy!

Molten Chocolate Cake with Almond Butter + Orange Blossom Filling

INGREDIENTS

Makes 4

Cocoa powder, for the moulds
100g unsalted butter + 20g unsalted butter, at room temperature for the moulds
200g dark chocolate, chopped
100g caster sugar
4 eggs
50g plain flour

Filling

100g almond butter
4 tablespoons single cream
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons orange blossom water

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 200 C (390 F)

• Grease the inside of 4 dariole moulds (150ml) with butter and sift some cocoa powder inside the moulds. Shake the moulds to make sure the inside of each mould is dusted with cocoa powder; this will help removing the cakes once they are cooked. Place in the fridge.

• In a microwave safe bowl, place the chocolate and the butter, stopping and stirring at 15 second intervals in the microwave, until smooth. Set aside for a few minutes.

• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and the sugar until smooth. You don’t have to use an electric whisk but you can if you want to. Add the melted chocolate and butter mixture to the egg and sugar mixture. Stir using a large spoon until smooth. Finally, gently stir in the flour making sure it is well combined.

• Place the cake batter in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.

• Mix all the filling ingredients together until they are well combined and smooth. If you prepare the filling in advance, place it in the fridge.

• Pour the batter into the dariole moulds until it reaches slightly more than 1/3 of the mould.

• Place one tablespoon of almond butter filling in the center of each mould. Push down gently the almond butter to make sure it doesn’t touch the sides of the mould and stays in the center.

• Divide and pour the rest of the batter between each mould. The molten cakes usually puff up while baking so make sure you leave 1 cm empty from the top of the moulds.

• Place in the oven for 11 to 14 minutes until the top of the cakes feels spongy. When they are ready, remove from the oven and leave for a minute or two to cool down. Remove the cakes from their moulds by inverting them on a plate. Serve immediately.

Notes

• Check the best way to make almond butter at home here.

• The reason why we keep the batter in the fridge is to make sure that the almond filling stays in the center. If they are both at room temperature the almond butter might fusion with the cake batter while baking and you might not end up with a melted center.

• I used 150ml dariole moulds.

•To make a classic molten chocolate cake (no filling, only melted chocolate in the center), follow the steps ignoring the almond filling and the fact that you need to keep the batter in the fridge before baking the cake. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes if you don't place the batter in the fridge.

• For a gluten free version, substitute the flour with ground almond,