Chocolate molten cakes: better than...

you know what. Seriously.

I had a dinner party last night. Much more to come on that in future posts. In a rather backwards fashion, I'm going to start w/ dessert. I made a recipe from page 179 of Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess called molten chocolate babycakes.

These are individual molten cakes (aka pudding cakes, lava cakes, etc) cooked in custard cups. They are quite possibly the easiest, most elegant and most delicious dessert EVER. They got rave reviews from "this is the best dessert I've ever eaten" to "this is sex in a bowl." Thanks, Nigella Lawson! I only followed the directions.

So here it is (am I breaking copywright laws?):

Scant 1/4 c. soft unsalted butter
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I used Sharfenbergers 70%)
1/2 c. sugar
4 large eggs
pinch of salt
1 t. vanilla
1/3 c. flour

6 individual 6oz custard cups or ramekins buttered

Preheat oven to 400. Cut circles out of baking parchment to fit the bottoms of cups and place in cups. Put cups on a cookie sheet.

Melt chocolate in microwave or over a bain-marie. Cream together butter and sugar, beat in eggs one at a time and add the pinch of salt then the vanilla. Add the flour and when combined, add the slightly cooled chocolate. Mix until smooth. Divide batter between custard cups. Cook for 12 -14 minutes (I had to cook mine for 14 min). The exterior should look set and cake-like. The inside will still be gooey. Turn out onto plates and serve w/ creme fraiche.

You could serve w/ ice cream or whipped cream, but the slight tartness of the creme fraiche provides a sophisticated contrast to the sweetness of the cake.

This dessert will make you happy to be alive!