Chocolate Lava Cake

Name: Chocolate Lava Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Yield: 12 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 tbsp unsalted butter; 2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate; 2 cups buttermilk, room temperature; 2 tbsp Grand Marnier; 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour; 2 cups brown sugar, divided; 1 tbsp baking powder; 1 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp salt; 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips; 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder; 2 1/2 cups boiling water

By Tom Jackson
Dec 11, 2015

Recipe Items

Certainly, there is more than one way to bake a cake, but this technique is unlike most. Don’t worry, it’s not any more involved than a typical cake, and the hot fudge like sauce that is created in the process is totally worth putting the box cake aside and giving it a shot!

Chocolate Lava Cake Recipe

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

3 tbsp unsalted butter
2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
2 tbsp Grand Marnier
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups brown sugar, divided
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups boiling water

Instructions

Preheat your Yoder Smokers YS640 to 375°F. Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, 1 cup of the brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to break up any clumps.

Whisk the buttermilk and Grand Marnier into the melted chocolate, then pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips, then spread the batter into a greased Lodge Logic 12” cast iron skillet.

Combine the remaining (1 cup) brown sugar with the cocoa powder, and sprinkle the mixture evenly over the batter.

Carefully pour the boiling water over the top. Transfer to the cooker and bake for about 30-45 minutes until the center is firm to the touch.

Serve warm with ice cream, spooning the sauce from the pan over the cake.

It starts normal enough; forming a cake batter and placing it in a greased pan (which for us is almost always a Lodge cast iron skillet). The batter is then topped with a mixture of brown sugar and cocoa powder.

And now things get weird. Water is boiled and poured over the whole thing. Seriously. This isn’t a prank.

As the cake does its normal cake baking thing, the water, brown sugar and cocoa form something like a hot fudge sauce in the bottom of the pan. And hot fudge is GOOD!

When you serve this, serve it warm. And get all the way down there, because the best part is in the bottom of the pan. Also, ice cream is just a necessity. Enjoy!