7 Desserts 7 Days: Molten Lava Chocolate Cake And a Giveaway

My twitter followers and facebook fans will be aware that in the run up to Valentine's, I'm doing a blogathon of 7 Desserts for 7 Days. Me and Akber don't really celebrate Valentine's- the most we would do is to go out for dinner. And that too, if I take the pain and effort to book a place. Valentine's in Dubai is very commercialised with restaurants charging a premium to dine in for nothing special really. I'm sure the same can be said for many places and so I thought it would be fun to come up with seven Valentine desserts that you can whip up easily in no time or hassle but taste extra awesome. All the desserts that will be featured in the next week are typically romantic desserts with a little bit of roses, chocolate and strawberries! Besides, wouldn't you rather receive something made at home with a little extra love and care?!

Today's dessert is my absolute favourite from all the seven desserts- molten lava chocolate cake. What can depict Valentine's better than chocolate. And you really can't get more chocolate-y than this. This was the first time I baked this decadent cake and it was super easy! The trick to getting the oozing chocolate as you cut through the cake is to NOT overbake it. And using a good quality dark chocolate is really paramount. Even if you're not a fan of the dark chocolate variety, don't worry- the bitterness will not come through at all. I added a touch of coffee to enhance the chocolate flavour even more. So if you're a guy reading this, can I sugget this as a way to your woman's heart!

We served this straight out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. A dollop of cream would be heavenly too. Although I feel the cake is best served straight out of the oven, it can be prepared in advance up until baking point. If you must bake it in advance, then thirty seconds in the microwave just before serving is advised.

This post has been submitted to February's Monthly Mingle hosted by Astrid at Paulchen's Food Blog.. Stay tuned tomorrow for something with chocolate, coconut and more chocolate. It's an individual dessert loved by all. Can you guess what it is?

And now for the giveaway. Since this is my first giveaway here on Lick My Spoon, I wanted it to be something straight from the heart. First I thought a box of chocolates but once eaten, they're forgotten about and I won't be doing your waistline any favours. So then I decided that something to help you in the kitchen would be grand! I'm happy to give away one of my favorite baking bibles- Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. This book has everything you will ever want to bake including cakes, breads, pastries and cookies. My favourite is the Devil's Food Cake with Mint Chocolate Ganache.

 

(Image from Amazon)

Here's how you can win:

1) Leave a comment to tell me what you'll be doing this Valentine's. Simple eh...... (although I wouldn't mind if you signed up to an email update)!

2) ''Like'' me on Facebook and leave a separate comment stating that you did.

3) Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following and then come and leave a separate comment stating that you did.

I just entered to win a Martha Stewart Baking Handbook @lickmyspoon247 Enter here: http://tinyurl.com/63ecesr #giveaway

This giveaway is open to readers WORLDWIDE and will run until Sunday 13th February 2011 at 11:59pm GMT. The winner will be generated via a random number generator software program and announced on Thursday February 17th 2011. Winner will be notified via the contact email provided on the comment contact form.Winner will have until Monday 21st February 2011 to claim their prize or I will choose another winner.

Disclosure:

This giveaway is provided to you by Lick My Spoon. I have personally bought this book and have not been sponsored or compensated by any company. All views on the book are my own.
 

Molten Lava Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

10 tbs butter

8 oz. dark chocolate (70% cocoa)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

3 large eggs

3 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp coffee powder

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade. Oil and flour six ramekins. In the microwave, melt the butter and chocolate in 30 second intervals until smooth. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth. Divide the batter evenly amongst the ramekins. Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 10-13 minutes (recipe calls for 10 but mine took 13 minutes). The cakes are done when the edges have set but the middle will still be soft. Run a knife around the edges of the ramekin to loosen the cakes and invert onto your serving plate. You can garnish with a little powdered icing sugar and strawberries on top.

I halved the recipe and got 3 individual cakes. Recipe adapted from Savory Sweet Life.