The Cake Slice Bakers March Challenge:

Our march challenge was to make individual warm chocolate cakes. Much like a lava cake would be. They were really good though if i were to make them again I would under bake them and use less bittersweet chocolate. While I am a chocolate lover I am not a dark or bittersweet chocolate fan. I grew up on milk chocolate and I guess some things just never change.

We had ours with a bit of vanilla bean ice cream and it was delicious even though they didn't turn out to be as gooey as they should have been.

Individual Warm Chocolate Cakes
Makes 6 cakes
You will need 6 six ounce ramekins.

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate* coarsely chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar, divided
4 large eggs separated
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Position rack in the center of your oven and preheat to 375 degrees. Butter the ramekins and then dust with some extra granulated sugar (not part of the 1/2 cup)

2. Put the chocolate and butter in a heat proof bowl over a pot of gently simmering water, make sure the bowl does not touch the water. Heat until the chocolate and butter and melted and smooth

3. Remove from heat and whisk in 1/4 cup sugar, whisk in the egg yolks.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer using the whisk attachment beat hte egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until still peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Divide evenly among the prepared ramekins.

5. Place ramekins on a baking sheet (easier to move) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until they have just cracked on top. Let the cakes stand for 1 minute before un-molding.

6. To un-mold just run a paring knife around the edge then place a plate on top. Invert the cake and it should slide out. You can also dust it with a bit of powdered sugar at this point.

7. Serve immediately with whipped cream or ice cream.

Enjoy!


* I used half semi-sweet and half bittersweet. Next time I would use mostly or all semi-sweet instead, and perhaps just cut a bit of the sugar out.