Molten Chocolate Babycakes

These make 6 individual cakes that you can chill ahead of time, and then and pop however many you want to serve at a time in the oven – they’ll be ready in just 12 minutes. Like their name implies, the molten center is ooey and gooey, and the cakes are really great served with a tart fruit sauce or some ice cream to counter the sweet chocolate.

Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking.

Ingredients

scant 1/4 cup soft unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
12 oz bittersweet chocolate (Valhrona, Ghirardelli are great. Scharffenberger is good but very fruity, so know that’s what you’ll taste.)
1/3 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt

6 individual 6-oz (3/4 cup) ramekins, buttered
baking parchment

Directions

Unless you are making them up in advance, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, putting in a baking sheet at the same time. Lay 3 of the ramekins on a sheet of doubled baking parchment. Draw around them, remove, and then cut out the discs as marked. Press them all into the bases of the (buttered) ramekins.

Melt the chocolate (using the double boiler method or microwaving in 30 second bursts on medium-high in the microwave) and let it cool slightly. Cream together the butter and sugar, then gradually add the eggs and salt, then the vanilla. The mixture will look curdled, but don’t worry. Next add the flour and a pinch of salt, and when it’s all combined and smooth, stir in the melted chocolate.

Divide the batter among the 6 ramekins, quickly take the baking sheet out of the oven, place the ramekins on it and replace it back in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, or 12 minutes if the cakes came from the fridge. As soon as you remove them from the oven, tip the cakes out onto the serving plates (do this carefully, since they’re hot — I usually use some combination of potholder and tongs.) One method that works well is to place the dessert plate on top of the ramekin and flip the whole thing over. Serve with whipped cream, ice cream, or even fresh berries.

Serves 6.