Salted Caramel Lava Cakes for 2
Feb 12, 2016, Updated May 07, 2023
Fudgy Salted Caramel Lava Cakes with a gooey salted caramel center is deliciously decadent! This recipe serves 2, which makes it perfect for date nights!
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Fudgy Chocolate Cakes with a gooey salted caramel center. This recipe makes 2 small salted caramel lava cakes – just what you need for Valentine’s day or a date night!
If you guys ask my favorite dessert, [I know that’s such a difficult question but still!!] lava cakes will rank right up there. They are amazing and there are 2 reasons why I love them so much –
1. I am crazy about melted gooey chocolate and lava cakes are all that and more!
2. they are so ridiculously easy to make and look so fancy. I swear I make my molten lava cakes literally in 10 minutes every time I have guests at home. And when I serve them, everyone is like “wow, this is so fancy, this is so amazing”. I seriously want to tell them that it look me only 10 minutes to make this! but I don’t, it’s okay let them think that it’s some super tough magical dessert! [now I hope they are not reading this!]
And so for valentine’s day, I made molten lava cakes for you guys again but this time I made them more awesome by adding some of my salted caramel sauce to it! I think one day I might end up writing a book on salted caramel, that’s the kind of obsession I have with this thing.
I adapted this recipe from my molten chocolate lava cake. The recipe is almost same except that I reduced the quantity of sugar (since I was adding the caramel sauce) and placed a frozen salted caramel sauce ball in the center! I really wanted lot of salted caramel sauce in my lava cake to I froze some sauce till it became rock solid. Basically I shaped it into a ball once it’s was almost frozen and then place it in the center of the cake and baked. As the cake bakes, the frozen salted caramel balls melt and create so much salted caramel and chocolate goodness! When you cut the cake, it’s like oozing chocolate and salted caramel everywhere!
Like I mentioned before, these salted caramel lava cakes take only 10 minutes of prep time and 10 minutes to bake! So in less than half an hour, you have this delicious dessert ready to be devoured. If you don’t don’t homemade salted caramel sauce, you get can get one from store or you can ever use caramel candies and sprinkle some sea salt on top of them to get the salted caramel flavor. Either way, I hope you guys give this dessert a try because it really can’t get easier than this!
Method
Grease two 6 oz ramekins with butter or spray with a nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.
Freeze 2 tablespoons of salted caramel sauce till rock solid. When you first place the sauce from the fridge on a parchment paper, it will spread – that is okay. Place in the freezer. After some time, probably around 30-45 minutes the sauce will freeze so that you can easily make a ball. Do once it’s almost frozen make a ball and keep it frozen till ready to use.
Place semi-sweet chocolate chips and butter in a bowl. I just cut the butter into cubes so that it melts easily. Place a pan half filled with water on stove top. Once the water starts simmering, place the bowl of chocolate and butter over it. The bowl should not touch the water. Keep stirring till the chocolate and butter are completely melted and form a smooth mixture. You can also melt this in a microwave, I just prefer double boiler method.
Once the chocolate and butter melts completely, remove the pan from heat. Add sugar, instant coffee and vanilla extract. Mix till well combined.
Wait for a 2-3 minutes for the mixture to cool down slightly and then add the egg and the egg yolk. We don’t add the eggs when mixture is hot because we don’t want to cook the eggs. Mix till combined.
Fold in the flour. The batter is now ready.
Pour batter into the ramekins till half filled and then take out the frozen salted caramel sauce ball and place in the center of each ramekin.
Pour remaining cake batter on top. Place the ramekins on a baking tray and bake at 400 F degrees for 10-12 minutes.
You want to bake till the edges appear set but the center still looks gooey, that’s when you take them out. I like lot of lava in my cake so that bake them for 10 minutes, you can bake them for 12 minutes however do not bake any longer, else you might not get any lava!
Take the ramekins out of the oven, wait for a minute and then invert them on a plate. Remember to wear oven mitts while handling the ramekins.
Top with vanilla ice cream, some more salted caramel sauce and serve immediately. There was so much flowing salted caramel here guys! LOVE! ?
* You can prepare the batter in advance. Cover with a cling and refrigerate. When ready to bake, take out the ramekins and let them sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes and then bake.
* I used my homemade salted caramel sauce in this recipe. You can use store bought too!
Salted Caramel Lava Cakes for 2
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 4.5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon instant coffee granules
- 2 teaspoons granulated white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons salted caramel sauce frozen [homemade or store-bought]
To serve
- vanilla ice cream
- salted caramel sauce
- berries optional
Instructions
- Grease two 6 oz ramekins with butter or spray with a nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.
- Freeze 2 tablespoons of salted caramel sauce till rock solid. When you first place the sauce from the fridge on a parchment paper, it will spread - that is okay. Place in the freezer. After some time, probably around 30-45 minutes the sauce will freeze so that you can easily make a ball. Do once it's almost frozen make a ball and keep it frozen till ready to use.
- Place semi-sweet chocolate chips and butter in a bowl. I just cut the butter into cubes so that it melts easily.
- Place a pan half filled with water on stove top. Once the water starts simmering, place the bowl of chocolate and butter over it. The bowl should not touch the water. Keep stirring till the chocolate and butter are completely melted and form a smooth mixture. You can also melt this in a microwave, I just prefer double boiler method.
- Once the chocolate and butter melts completely, remove the pan from heat. Add sugar, instant coffee and vanilla extract. Mix till well combined.
- Wait for a 2-3 minutes for the mixture to cool down slightly and then add the egg and the egg yolk. We don't add the eggs when mixture is hot because we don't want to cook the eggs. Mix till combined.
- Fold in the flour. The cake batter is now ready.
- Pour batter into the ramekins till half filled and then take out the frozen salted caramel sauce ball and place in the center of each ramekin.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Salted Caramel Lava Cakes for 2
I want to make an eggless version.What’s the substitute for eggs here ,and how much?
until I have made and tested an eggless lava cake recipe, I cannot say, sorry.
Thanks Agness!
Thank you!! 🙂
Thanks Harriet!
Thank you Annie! It’s my favorite! 🙂
Me too!! Thanks Kelly!
I agree! Thanks Kathy!
Thanks Anu!
Oh my gosh! This looks amazing! So sweet and tasty! Also, I love that you made it for 2!! That’s so sweet!! <3
Thank you dear! I love that this recipe makes only 2 cakes!
Wow. This looks so ooey, gooey, and amazing! And I think it’s really interesting the way you froze the caramel like that. Great tip!
Ooey, gooey is the best! Thanks Amanda!
These lava cakes look gorgeous, Manali! Love all that caramel! These are definitely my idea of the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert. 🙂
Thanks Jess!
Oh my goodness, these look so amazing!! *-* I’m probably just have to eat both portions! 😛
This is awesome
Love the clicks
Simply Awesome Manali…. 🙂
These lava cakes do look super impressive Manali! And seriously are they that easy? Wow, just wow! <3
Oh my word these look good! I´m a huuuge fan of anything caramel!! 🙂