This no added sugar Molten Lava Cake for two is rich, decadent, full of chocolate flavour and takes less than 25 minutes to make. Its gooey, moist, utterly moreish, and perfect for two people. This recipe is sweet, but not too sweet and can be made in ramekins, or a muffin pan.
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Recipe Highlights
- It’s a bowl of comforting chocolate cake - soft and gooey in the centre, so addictive you could eat it for breakfast
- Made with 7 simple ingredients in under 25 minutes
- Its naturally sweetened with no added sugar
- Perfect serving for 2 for Date Nights, valentines, birthdays or other occasion
- Super easy to scale up to 4 or 6 servings if you’re having guests
- You can customize the level of melted centre based on how long you cook it for
- Save time and effort by serving in the ramekin – no need to turn it out onto a plate
- Take it to the next level with creamy low sugar vanilla ice cream, or cream fraiche, and fresh raspberries
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Eggs: I use medium organic eggs at room temperature which help to bing the cake together.
- Vanilla extract: this is for additional flavour
- Cacao powder: Unsweetened cocoa powder is best and can be found in the baking aisle of most supermarkets. Avoid using the drinking chocolate powder that is already sweetened as the lava cakes will be too sweet.
- Butter: Use unsalted butter if you can. Melting in the microwave is fine, although do be sure not to over melt and burn the butter
- Almond Meal: this is ground up blanched almonds and is sometimes called Almond Flour. However Almond Meal and Almond Flour are two different things. The almond meal I use has a courser texture that flour and an earthier taste. Almond Flour is much finer and more “powder” like
- Monkfruit Sweetener: this is a natural sweetener that measures like sugar. It comes in granulated and powdered form, and there are white and brown versions. Whilst any of them will work, my preference is for the powdered monkfruit which is very fine and mixes into the batter to be almost invisible and leaves no grittiness or aftertaste
- Baking Powder: helps the cakes to rise. If you haven’t used your baking powder within the last 6 months, it may no longer work and have lost its ability to make baked goods rise. I’d recommend buying a fresh container of baking powder for best results if your is older than 6 months
Remember those gooey chocolate cake desserts you get in restuarants that look and taste amazing, but you’re not really sure if you could ever make it at home? Well, look no further because this is a healthy lava cake without the guilt that’s actually easy to make in your own kitchen.
This lava cake for two is baked long enough to let the outer layer set whilst leaving the inner layer soft and melty.
How to Make
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, mix cacao powder, powdered monk fruit, and baking powder. Set aside.
- Mix Wet Ingredients: Beat the eggs until frothy, it will be easier with an electric mixer but it could be done by hand as well. Add vanilla extract, melted butter, and combine.
- Add Dry Ingredients into Wet Ingredients: Add mixed cacao powder into wet ingredients and stir until combined. Add almond meal and mix.
- Pour batter into ramekins: Generously grease with butter two ramekins, this will help you when unmolding.
- Bake: Bake the lava cakes in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the center is barely jiggly.
- Cool: Let cakes cool for 5 minutes before unmolding, or alternatively serve in the ramekins
Recipe Tips
- Chocolate: Use a good quality unsweetened cocoa powder as it will provide the chocolate flavour.
- Greasing Ramekins: If you plan to turn the cakes out onto a plate to serve, make sure to thoroughly grease the ramekins on the bottom and up the sides with lots of butter to make them easier to get out. Once cooked, let them cool for 5 minutes before running a butter knife around the edge of the ramekin to loosen before turning out
- Serving in Ramekins: If you forgot to grease the ramekins or aren’t confident of successfully turning them out, serve them in the ramekins with a dollop of cream or ice cream on top
- Baking Time: its easy to make the lava cakes more or less gooey in the centre by adjusting the baking time to suit what your preference is. 10 to 12 minutes will result in a more fully cooked cake that is soft in the centre but not gooey. 8 – 9 minutes will result in a cake that is cooked on the outside and molten on the inside.
- More than two? If you’re making lava cakes for more than two people, you can double the recipe to serve four, or triple the recipe to make 6 cakes. Use the adjustable servings slider below in the recipe card to double or triple the ingredients.
- Taste Test the batter: If you like your desserts a little on the sweet side, taste the batter before putting into he ramekins to see if it is sweet enough for you. If not add a little additional sweetener and mix it through.
Once the lava cakes are cooked and cooled its best to serve them straight away whilst they’re still warm so you can enjoy that delicious melted chocolate centre.
Different Flavour Addins
- Orange Zest: zest one orange and mix it through the batter for a chocolate orange lava cake
- Ground Cinnamon or Ginger: add half a teaspoon of your favourite ground spice for a warming and earthy flavour addition
- Coffee: add 1 tablespoon of brewed instant coffee or espresso to the batter, stirred through. Make sure that its cooled first before adding
- More Chocolate: Add some sugar free chocolate chips (white or dark), for a seriously double chocolate dessert
Common Questions
If you have a muffin pan that will work. Use 2 of the holes for the cake batter and leave the others empty, or if you muffin pan is smaller, you can make more than 2 lava cakes. You could also use a tiny cake tin and make a single lava cake for 2 people to share – perfect for valentines day, with ice cream of course.
You could, but I wouldn’t recommend it as the gooey chocolate centre will become firm.
Yes, if you’ve let it cool for too long, pop it into the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds to warm up.
Once you’ve made you own for the first time, it will be easy to see nothing beats homemade lava cakes. They're easier to make than they look and you can make in under 25 minutes.
More Chocolate Dessert Recipes
Sugar Free Molten Lava Cakes for Two
Ingredients
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons Cacao powder
- 4 tablespoons Butter - melted
- 1-2 tablespoons Almond meal * - see note 1
- 3 tablespoons Powdered monk fruit sweetener - see note 2
- ½ teaspoon Baking powder
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix cacao powder, powdered monk fruit, and baking powder. Set aside.
- Beat the eggs until frothy, it will be easier with an electric mixer but it could be done by hand as well. Add vanilla extract, melted butter, and combine.
- Add mixed cacao powder into wet ingredients and stir until combined. Add almond meal and mix.
- Generously grease with butter two ramekins, this will help you when unmolding. Bake the lava cakes for 10-12 minutes, or until the center is barely jiggly. If you don’t want to unmold it, you could bake it for 8-9 minutes to get a meltier lava cake.
- Let them cool for 5 minutes before unmolding.
- Serve them with some fresh fruits, cream, or ice cream on top.
Notes
- Almond Meal: this is ground up blanched almonds and is sometimes called Almond Flour. However Almond Meal and Almond Flour are two different things. The almond meal I use has a courser texture that flour and an earthier taste. Almond Flour is much finer and more “powder” like
- Monkfruit Sweetener: this is a natural sweetener that measures like sugar. It comes in granulated and powdered form, and there are white and brown versions. Whilst any of them will work, my preference is for the powdered monkfruit which is very fine and mixes into the batter to be almost invisible and leaves no grittiness or aftertaste
- Cake Texture: The difference in adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of almond meal will be in the texture of the cake. While with 1 tablespoon it will be softer, this will make it harder to unmold. When adding a second tablespoon of almond meal, the batter gets harder so it ends up with a stronger structure. In the end, both have the same decadent and delicious chocolate-y taste.
- Baking Time: its easy to make the lava cakes more or less gooey in the centre by adjusting the baking time to suit what your preference is. 10 to 12 minutes will result in a more fully cooked cake that is soft in the centre but not gooey. 8 – 9 minutes will result in a cake that is cooked on the outside and molten on the inside.
- Greasing Ramekins: If you plan to turn the cakes out onto a plate to serve, make sure to thoroughly grease the ramekins on the bottom and up the sides with lots of butter to make them easier to get out. Once cooked, let them cool for 5 minutes before running a butter knife around the edge of the ramekin to loosen before turning out
- Serving in Ramekins: If you forgot to grease the ramekins or aren’t confident of successfully turning them out, serve them in the ramekins with a dollop of cream or ice cream on top.
Nutrition
Note: Sugars contained in this recipe are from naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables or other natural sweeteners. Calories have been calculated for your convenience using My Fitness Pal and are based on the ingredients listed in the recipe card.
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