[intro music]
Hi guys, I'm Laura Vitale, and today we're making something that's incredibly impressive
but really could not be easier to do!
We re making my salted caramel lava cakes. Now,
these are really ridiculously good, incredibly indulging, you just make them once in a while
and they look really impressive, but they really couldn't be easier to make.
We're going to start by making the actual cake itself and to do that, you'll need just
a handful of basic ingredients like all purpose flour, instant espresso powder, some salt,
granulated sugar, semi-sweet chocolate chips. I've got a mixture of egg yolks and whole
eggs. You'll need unsalted butter and vanilla.
Those are all the ingredients you'll need to make the actual cakes, and then we'll just
need a couple of additional ingredients. Now, I have my oven pre-heated to 450F. I also
have six, six ounce ramekins that I have greased with some non-stick spray. I have them back
there ready for me when I need them.
But for now, we're going to get going on making the little cakes. Now, in my little sauce
pan I am going to add my butter.
It's like partially melted because I had it on the stove and I had my oven pre-heating.
To the butter, I'm going to add the chocolate, and I - if you watched the butterscotch molten
cakes, this is kind of the same thing. All I'm going to do is put these together until
they melt.
Now, this won't take very long and do not even think about turning this on high and
walking away because when chocolate burns, there is no coming back from it - from burned
chocolate, it's terrible.
So, if it splits, because it will look like it splits because the fat is separating from
the chocolate, don't worry about it. It all comes together in the magic of when we mix
it all together. So don't worry.
All I'm doing here is just stirring until everything melts nicely and then I'm just
going to set it aside to cool.
This looks great.
Everything is just about melted. There are a few chocolate chips left but I'm just going
to let them sit there, and if they cool everything melts together. It's like the magic of cooking
- something brilliant happens when you least expect it. In this bowl, I'm using my electric
whisk here because it's just easy, I"m adding my whole eggs and my egg yolks, and I'm going
to add my sugar and I am going to whisk these together until really nicely combined and
then we'll get going on adding pretty much everything else. It's really simple and really
easy, really straight forward, which I love.
Just adding a little bit of vanilla.
Mix that in.
Okay.
Get my chocolate, it's looking good - it shouldn't be piping hot, otherwise it will scramble
the eggs.
And there are some chunks of chocolate in there but do not worry. I mean think about
it, where's this going to end up?
Right in the cake, so, we'll live.
Okay, mix that in until you have a really creamy chocolate-y mixture and then we'll
add in our dry ingredients.
Excellent.
I'm just going to take my flour.
I'm adding a little bit of espresso powder because as you know, I happen to think that
anytime you add a little bit of coffee to chocolate it just intensifies that chocolate
flavor. It doesn't taste like coffee, it just makes that chocolate really shine.
I'm going to mix this together until it's incorporated, not over mixing because we don't
want to develop any gluten, making this really tough.
That is gorgeous, there is not a lump in sight.
That is what I want to see!
I'm like mesmerized by how good this looks!
I have my ramekins here sprayed with non-stick spray. I have a little ladle here, and I'm
just going to take the batter and divide it in my ramekins.
Oh, look at that!
I divided my batter evenly among my six ramekins, some of it might have gotten on the baking
sheet but it's all good.
I'm going to pop these into the oven that's been pre-heated to 450F and these will only
be in there between twelve to fourteen minutes, no longer.
The tops and edges will seem set, but the very center will still seem - you can see
that it's still really wobbly. That's what you want, that's a lava cake.
I'm going to pop these in, and when they're ready to come out, we will pull the whole
thing off together.
It's so easy yet so impressive, nobody will know that it took like ten minutes.
My little cakes were in the oven for twelve minutes and if you can see the edges are set
but the center is still somewhat wobbly, and I have let this cool for two minutes - I've
let these cool for two minutes - this is going to be really hot!
Now, what I'm going to do is invert this onto a plate.
What I have here is some homemade caramel sauce. Now, you can make your own caramel
sauce, and I suggest you do. I kind of took a shortcut and made this already earlier,
just because, you know, I have an entire video dedicated to it, so if you want to go to laurainthekitchen.com
and check out my caramel sauce, you will be forever grateful. Because it is so good, it's
my all-time favorite and it just works really, really well every single time.
So, I already have some homemade caramel sauce ready but you can also use store bought. And
I also have some fleur de sel which is a lovely French sea salt.
It's - all three together are going to make for the perfect little cakes so I am just
going to take my little ramekin off.
I'm going to put just a little bit of my caramel on top and let it drizzle around the sides
as well.
And now what's going to happen is when you cut into this, the caramel and the chocolate
lava is kind of going to mix together - just you wait!
And then that little tiny bit of sea salt that - the sea salt, what this does - why
it's so crucial here, is that it offsets all that sweetness.
So let's - ohh, look at that!
Are you seeing what I'm seeing?
Are you seeing what I'm seeing??
This is like a love affair!
And it should stop, between me and chocolate, it's not going to.
Not any time soon.
I cannot wait.
It's like soft, and look at that. Oozing in the middle. And it's just set on the edge.
I should quit my job while I'm still ahead.
That is the most incredible thing.
That little touch of salt, I promise you, makes all the difference.
It's somehow not as sweet and as rich as you think it's going to be. It's like the most
incredible balance you'll probably ever imagine, and I promise you that this is worth every
little bit of effort even though it didn't take very long, and you could definitely use
a short cut by using some store-bought caramel sauce.
Go to LauraintheKitchen.com to get this recipe.
Give me a thumbs up and a like if you did enjoy this video and let me know what you
want to see next.
I love reading your comments, especially when it comes to wanting to sort of different takes
on specific recipes so let me know down below and I so hope that you have enjoyed spending
time with me.
I'm going to go back to this because you have no idea what I'm feeling right now. It's really
deep, and it's really exciting.
Hope you guys have enjoyed spending time with me and I will see you very soon.
Bye bye!
[music]
[laughter]
I really could eat all this!
Look at it. It's like liquid gold.