Recipe Monday: Mini Chocolate Lava Cakes - Attempt #1

Monday nights are cell group nights for our church's 11th and 12th grade students who are wanting "more" than just Wednesday night, which I have really enjoy.  Mostly for the time and more laid back/less intimating environment for relationships to grow, but it has also got me baking again.  Jonathan can attest to the fact that I am NOT a baker, but more a cook, yet it has been a treat putting the proverbial baker's cap back on.  Homemade chocolate chip cookies, chocolate fondue, snickerdoodles...  they may not always look pretty, but it normally tastes pretty good!

So today I tried mini chocolate lava cakes; one of our ladies asked for chocolate fondue or something to dip in.  I've been to a couple Pampered Chef parties lately that have served their Chocolate Lava Cakes made in the microwave with the rice cooker, but I don't have the rice cooker or a big enough microwave for that.  So what to do next?

Google.  Of course!

Google then lead me to a box of Duncan Hines' Dark Chocolate Cake Mix, Milk Chocolate Frosting, a can of sweetened condensed milk, and half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

The first step was melt the condensed milk and chocolate chips together on low, then set aside while mixing the cake batter per the directions.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour the muffin tins or ramekins (I like the baker's spray, which has the flour already added in).

Fill each muffin tin half the way, then add a large dollop (about two tablespoons) of the melted chocolate into the batter.

Once you've put in the chocolate filler, put more batter on top, until the tins are about 2/3 - 3/4 way full.

Bake for 20 - 22 minutes, and they will come out looking something like this:

It's okay for the tops to be cracked; remember, you will be inverting this once they have cooled for about fifteen minutes or so.  If you aren't going to be serving them right away, simply cover with foil to keep the heat in; these slid out better warm.  I do recommend dipping a butter knife in hot water and running it around the rim of each cake before inverting them.

Once inverting, melt the milk chocolate frosting for about thirty seconds in the microwave, then pour over each cake.  Dust with powder sugar and viola!  Individual mini chocolate lava cakes!  Great with ice cream!

So they don't look that pretty (I let the frosting cool a bit before I glazed them; note to self, don't do that as it clumps), and the last batch stuck like crazy!  Not sure why... the first half dozen popped right out without any issue (see far left; they are the prettier ones).  Anyway, here is what lava cakes look like after being attacked by high-schoolers:

So for my first attempt, they tasted awesome; I just have to work on appearance a little bit!  And I love that they are perfectly portioned... they are very rich but one is just perfect.  It's an easy way to fulfill the chocolate craving without the expensive bakery price.