Lava Cake

Doneness

The top and edges are set and matte and spring back when lightly pressed, while the center stays soft and gives slightly when you nudge the ramekin — that wobble is the molten core. A toothpick near the rim comes out clean, but the middle is intentionally underdone. There's no probe temperature: a lava cake is judged by the firm-edge / soft-center contrast, not an internal reading. Pull it while the center still jiggles — over-bake by even a minute or two and the lava sets into ordinary cake.

Oil & seasoning

Grease each ramekin generously with butter and dust with cocoa powder — not flour, which leaves a white film on a chocolate cake — so the cake releases and inverts out clean.

Season with: Classic chocolate (the benchmark): melted dark or semisweet chocolate and butter beaten with egg, sugar and a spoon of flour — rich batter, set edges, liquid center., Nutella-stuffed: push a frozen disk of Nutella into the center of the batter before baking for a guaranteed hazelnut-chocolate core., Peanut-butter core: a frozen teaspoon of peanut butter buried in the middle melts into a salty-sweet molten center., Boxed-mix shortcut: chocolate cake mix batter spooned into ramekins and pulled a couple of minutes early so the centers stay molten — the fastest route..

Watch out for

• !Pull while the center still jiggles. Over-baking by even a minute or two sets the lava into plain cake — start checking at the early end of the window.
• !Grease and cocoa-dust the ramekins (not flour) so the cake inverts out clean and the chocolate stays dark instead of white-dusted.
• !Use small individual ramekins, not one large pan — a big vessel bakes through before the center can stay molten. Small portions are what create the lava.
• !For a foolproof molten core, freeze a square of chocolate or a teaspoon of Nutella / peanut butter and press it into the center of the batter before baking.