Chocolate Lava Cake

I made Chocolate Lava Cake for dessert on Valentine’s Day.  I found the recipe on the Tasty Kitchen website earlier in the week.  I told Mike and the kids that I had a fabulous dessert planned for our “family” Valentine’s dinner.  It was going to be a surprise.  I hyped this mystery dessert so much that I was afraid it might not be nearly as good as I had promised.  No worries – it was beyond amazing.  I did have to stop myself from thinking about the amount of calories and fat that we all consumed though.  I probably should make this dessert only once a year…or maybe twice. 🙂 

Chocolate Lava Cake
Dig In!

Just in case you feel the need for a rich chocolate dessert recipe, here it is… 

Chocolate Lava Cake

Ingredients

  • 4 pieces (squares) semi-sweet baking chocolate
  • ½ cup butter
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 6 tablespoons flour
  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoons sugar 
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    Preparation Instructions

    Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray 4 custard cups with Pam and place on cookie sheet.  Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted.  Whisk until chocolate is also melted.  Stir in sugar until well blended.  Whisk in eggs and egg yolks.  Stir in flour.  Divide between cups.  Bake 13-14 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft.  Let stand 1 minute.  Combine sugar and heavy cream and whip until stiff.  Invert cakes on dishes and top with whipped cream. 

    **I didn’t use the amount of whipping cream the recipe called for.  It seemed like way too much.  I used only about 1/2 cup and added a small amount of sugar and vanilla after I whipped it.  I would serve the whipped cream off to the side next time so that it doesn’t melt from the heat of the lava cake.  I used sliced fresh strawberries for garnish.  The tartness of the berries along with the richness of the chocolate and delicate flavor of the whipped cream made for a perfect trio.

    Valentine’s Cards

    With Valentine’s Day coming up on Sunday, the kids have worked on getting Valentine’s cards ready for their classmates.  We picked out some cute Hello Kitty Valentines with glitter stickers for Sophia.  Sebastian ended up with Phineas & Ferb.  I think he was hoping for some sort of sport Valentines, but the choices were very limited.  His other options were Spiderman, SpongeBob, Diego, Barbie and a variety of princesses.  Not cool for a 9-year-old.  Sophia spent Monday evening writing out all of her classmate’s names, signing her own and taping a small sucker on each one.  She even made one for Mike and one for herself.  I think her alterior motive was to get a sucker for herself.  Sebastian is still working on his, but plans to finish up tonight.  Homework and basketball practice the past couple of evenings has cut into his Valentine time.  

    Speaking of basketball, Sebastian’s last game is on Saturday.  It’s been a tough season with only one win, but the kids have played hard and learned a great deal in their few months playing.  The teams are supposed to made up of 3rd & 4th graders, but his team has only 3rd graders.  There is definitely a big height difference between the two grades!  We took team photos after the game this past weekend.  I put together a simple photo momento for the kids to remember their awesome team. 🙂 

    Team Photo

    We also took photos this weekend to use for a Valentine card to send to family.  Here’s a peek at some of the shots.

    Sebastian & Sophia
    Sebastian
    Sophia
    L.O.V.E
    Sophia & Daphne

    Photo Session Over  

    Sebastian