The Goods

Recipe: Red Velvet Lava Cake

A warm chocolate cake with an ooey gooey centre to celebrate your love — or even just your love of chocolate.

A warm chocolate cake with an ooey gooey centre to celebrate your love — or even just your love of chocolate

This Red Velvet Lava Cake is the perfect way to cap off a romantic dinner. And while chef Shahir shared this recipe just in time for Valentine’s Day, we’re into celebrating our love of chocolate cake any day of the year. But did you know that this classic dessert was born of an underbaked cake? Shahir’s recipe is a red velvet take on a traditional lava cake, and calls for plenty of chocolate, eggs and butter — all the makings of a delicious dessert. He recommends using a food colouring paste to get that gorgeous deep red colour. It will keep you from having to use too much liquid and diluting your batter. Bake for ten minutes, top with cream cheese glaze, and welcome the compliments.

Ingredients

  • ½ cup butter, plus extra for greasing
  • 1 oz dark chocolate
  • 5 oz red melting wafers
  • 1 extra large whole egg
  • 2 extra large egg yolks
  • ¼ cup icing sugar
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • ⅛ tsp red food colouring paste

Drizzle:

  • 4 tbsp cream cheese, room temperature
  • 2 tbsp icing sugar
  • ⅛ tsp kosher salt
  • 3-4 tbsp 2% milk

Equipment:

  • 4 heart-shaped moulds (6 oz each)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425F.

Generously grease heart moulds with butter. Set aside. Over a double boiler add dark chocolate, red melting wafers and butter. Once it starts to melt, whisk until everything is melted and combined. Remove from heat and whisk in only one egg/egg yolk at a time to make sure you don’t get scrambled eggs. Whisk in sugar, vanilla, flour, cinnamon, salt and food colouring. Evenly transfer batter to greased 6 oz heart shaped moulds and bake for 10-11 minutes until sides are firm and centre is still soft. 

While cakes bake, make your cream cheese glaze. Whip room temperature cream cheese, icing sugar and salt until light and fluffy, then slowly add milk until you get a consistency like melted chocolate. 

Remove lava cakes from oven. Cakes should be set and cooked around the edges and loose in the middle. Let rest for 30 seconds and when ready to remove cakes from the tin, place a board on top of the tin and gently flip together. Transfer cakes to a plate, drizzle cream cheese glaze over top of warm lava cakes, enjoy!

Servings: Makes 4 heart-shaped moulds (6 oz each)