Molten lava cake (from a box mix!)

We’ve all been to restaurants that offer those delicious looking molten lava chocolate cakes on the dessert menu. They look amazing, but frankly I am a little too cheap to order dessert out after having dinner. When I saw this mix on clearance at Aldi, I immediately grabbed it because I knew my family would really enjoy it.

I expected to find some sort of chocolate truffle balls in the mix that go in the middle of the cakes, so I was surprised when we open it up and found nothing but a bag of cake mix. At that point, I was a little skeptical of how exactly they were going to turn out. But we all love chocolate, so we dug right in anyway, lol!

(By the way, I’m not listing ingredients and measurements because this is a box mix, and each one is different.  I don’t want to give you directions that are different from the ones on the box you may purchase.)

This was one of the simplest mixes I have ever seen.  It only required eggs and butter, and of course the bag mix.  Instead of using ramekins, we used the muffin tin we had.  The recipe called for us to oil the tin first, but I chose to use Cake Release that I had on hand.  If you haven’t ever used Cake Release, it is AMAZING!  You can literally just dump the cake right out of the pan after baking.  Be sure to use it liberally, or your cake will stick. It has the consistency of a soft butter, not quite as thin as oil.  You should be able to find it at any grocery store or specialty baking shop for under $3.00.

The directions are pretty easy.  Whisk the eggs, melt the butter, and slowly mix the two together.  Then add in the bag mix and stir until mixed completely (don’t beat).  Then pour into the greased pan and pop it in the oven.  That’s it!

The key to making these molten lava mini cakes is to cook them until the tops are just barely done.  The middle ends up being soft and runny, but the heat is enough to cook the eggs inside, so don’t worry about that.

Flip the cakes out of the pan and serve them upside down.  I dusted these with powdered sugar to add a nice touch at the end.  When you cut into the cake with a fork, you can see the yummy chocolaty center.

Doesn’t it look divine?  I was so impressed that this bit of deliciousness came from a box mix, and only took a few minutes to throw together.  And the best part of making these cakes?  Licking the bowl, of course! 🙂

Have you ever made a molten lava cake from a box mix?  What’s your favorite cake to make from a box?