Chocolate Souffle Cake

I think a recipe for Chocolate Souffle Cake this week makes sense. Valentines Day is next week Sunday, meaning this gives you a full week to practice. My daughter and I had dinner at a local restaurant last week and she ordered the chocolate lava cake. It was very disappointing, to be honest. It was dry and overbaked. No lava anywhere in sight. Anywhere!

Oh well, I told her not to worry, I got a recipe and will make one for her that actually has lava or liquid chocolate inside. And that is exactly what we did. It came out great. The recipe makes six orders. You only can eat one, because it is super-rich. I got this recipe from Commanders Palace in New Orleans probably 30 years ago and it's really good. Maybe even Emeril came up with it, one never knows. Recipes get swapped out all the time and sometimes even improved upon. Can't improve this one. Good, quality chocolate is the key. Don't buy the cheap stuff.

You get out of it what you put into it. The bottom line for defining great chocolate is the amount of cocoa solids present. The percentage should be a minimum of over 45 percent for dark chocolate and 30 percent for milk chocolate. Truly great chocolates have cocoa solids over 70 percent.

Once you have the batter in the cups or ramekins, bake one and see if it needs longer baking for your taste. I started mine at 10 minutes and ended up at 15 minutes as my sweet spot. And no, I did not eat six lava cakes, but my daughter ate five of them and not on the same day.

The vessel you use to bake them in is important. I have cappuccino cups I used and it worked well. Any heatproof cup or ramekin will do as long as they are not too big, about 5 or 6-ounces in size.

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Ingredients

1 tablespoon melted butter or cooking spray for cups

9 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/4 stick butter, room temperature

1/2 cup cake flour

powdered sugar

ice cream or/and whipped cream

fresh mint

Directions

Preheat oven to 400˚F.

With a pastry brush generously brush six cups with melted butter on the inside and set them aside.

Heat two cups of water in a saucepot over medium heat.

Place chocolate in a glass or stainless steel bowl and place over steaming water in the saucepot and stir occasionally until melted. When completely melted, set aside and let cool for 10 minutes.

Mix sugar and eggs in a food processor until well blended. Blend in butter. Add flour and process until smooth, then blend in chocolate.

Divide batter among prepared dishes. Place on a baking sheet and bake until cakes are puffed, tops look crusty and a tester inserted comes out with wet batter still attached, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Run a knife around the sides of the cakes and turn upside down onto a serving plate. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with vanilla bean ice cream or whipped cream or both. I like both. Garnish with fresh raspberries and a sprig of bright green mint.

Makes 6 Individual Cakes

Happy Valentines Day

Any guy hates Valentine's Day. Even if you're in love, you can't win on Valentine's Day. If you're married, you can't win on Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is like the thing you want to avoid at all costs.

~Vince Vaughn

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