Recipe: Chocolate fondant (lava) cakes (Gordon Ramsay)

Chocolate fondant (a.k.a molten lava cakes) is one sexy dessert. The anticipation of passing a knife through the cake to reveal a molten centre is simply irresistible. This is a dessert we like to order when we see it on the menu (though not all are done nicely), hence it has been on our "To-bake list" for some time.

It's August and this month, we'll be cooking Gordon Ramsay's recipes for our "Cook Like a Star" event. Gordon Ramsay is definitely one of my favorite chefs - I love watching his cooking shows on TV (he gives out some really good cooking tips),  am a fan of his recipes and had a fantastic dining experience in one of his restaurants (Maze) in London several years ago.

A friend recently gifted us with some 70% dark chocolate,  so Hubby put it to good use and made us some chocolate fondants, using Gordon Ramsay's famous recipe. The great thing about this recipe is that you can make these in advance and then place it in the freezer, until you need it.

Beautiful! :)

You've probably heard this before - every oven is different, so you may need to experiment with the timings for the perfect chocolate fondant. Cook it too little and you end up with a chocolate mess, cook it too much and there will be no lava. For us, 10 minutes is the magic number - we ended up with gooey, rich chocolate fondants. Simply a delight to eat! We like having ours with some vanilla ice cream and fresh raspberries.

I used 100ml pudding moulds, instead of 150ml as in original recipe. This serving size is just nice for 1 person as this is a very rich, sinful dessert.

This is a really fantastic recipe, and we're so glad that we can now make chocolate fondants at home successfully, thanks to Gordon Ramsay. :)

Gordon Ramsay's Chocolate Fondant (lava cakes)
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from here
Makes 7

Ingredients
28 g melted butter, for brushing
cocoa powder, for dusting
111 g dark chocolate, best quality you can get, chopped into small pieces
111 g butter, chopped into small pieces
111 g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
111 g plain flour



1. Using upward strokes, heavily brush the melted butter all over the inside of  seven 100ml pudding moulds. Place them into the fridge or freezer. Once they are chilled, brush more melted butter over the chilled butter, then add a good spoonful of cocoa powder into the mould. Tip the mould so the powder completely coats the butter. Tap any excess cocoa out, and then repeat with all of the moulds.

2.Place a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, and then slowly melt the chocolate and butter together. Remove bowl from heat and stir until smooth. Leave to cool for about ten minutes.

3. In another bowl whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail. Sift the flour into the eggs, and then beat together.

4. Pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture in thirds, beating well between each addition until all the chocolate is added and the mixture is completely combined to a loose cake batter.

5. Tip the fondant into a jug, then evenly divide between the moulds. These can now be frozen for up to a month and cooked from frozen. If not freezing, chill for a minimum of 20 minutes or up to 24 hours.

6. Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6.

7. Place the fondants on a baking tray then cook for 10-12 minutes until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds. Remove from the oven, and then let them sit for 1 minute before turning out.

8. Loosen the fondants by moving the tops very gently so they come away from the sides, easing them out of the moulds. Tip each one slightly onto your hand so you know that it has come away, then tip back into the mould, put a plate on top and turn it over.

9. Serve with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

Note: Cooking time in our oven for a molten centre is 10 minute, cooked from chilled. To cook from frozen, cook for 15 minutes.

* I am submitting this to the "Cook Like Gordon Ramsay" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Mich of Piece of Cake. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from any Gordon Ramsay websites or cookbooks for the whole month of August 2014. You can link your posts at one of the host's pages.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in August 2014 - please do not link older posts.Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Mich of Piece of Cake and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:



*I am also linking this to Little Thumbs Up : August 2014 (Flour) hosted by The Domestic Goddess Wannabe. 

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