Vegan Lava Cakes

Molten chocolate lava cakes are warm, individual chocolate cakes with an oozing, liquid centre. They are baked in mini cocottes or ramekins and can either be served in the dish they are baked in, or can be carefully turned out on a plate. Served fresh from the oven they are fantastic topped with dairy-free vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Here's what you'll be needing to make Vegan Lava Cakes:

These vegan lava cakes are baked in small dishes like ramekins or cocottes and are a fun way to give everyone their own individual cake. Any ovenproof containers that will comfortably hold 175mls (6 oz or ¾ cup) will be fine.

Making homemade vegan lava cakes is a lot easier than you may think:

Step 1 - Prepare your mini cocottes or ramekins and place the optional peanut butter or chocolate in the middle of each one. They are still good without it though so don't worry if you don't have any.

Step 2 - Mix all of the dry cake ingredients in a bowl.

Step 3 - Pour the milk into the dry ingredients and whisk it up. The batter is really thin and runny. That's how it should be so don't worry.

Step 4 - Divide the batter between your baking dishes (overtop of the peanut butter/chocolate).

Step 5 - Bake the cakes (they only take about 13 minutes!) then serve immediately.

Just wait until you break into it!

To make the vegan lava cakes in a microwave the process is much the same but I advise going up a size in container because they have a tendency to swell up more than when you bake them in an oven. The time they take will vary greatly depending on your microwave too so the first time will be a little trial and error.

I recommend starting with 40 seconds on high power then cooking in 5-second increments after that until it's cooked well around the edges but still molten in the middle. Remember that microwaved food continues to cook a lot once you remove it, so be very careful not to go too far.

• Don't overcook the cakes or the centres won't be lava-filled.
• Do not open the oven door while these are cooking or they could collapse. It won't be necessary to check on them before the 12 minutes mark.
• When you’re checking if the cakes are done, keep in mind that they will continue to cook after they’re removed from the oven so err on the side of caution. It's better to slightly under-cook them than it is to over-cook them.
• You can bake the cakes in a microwave but I find the results are much better when you use an oven.
• The cakes are designed to be eaten straight from the baking dish and don’t need to be turned out onto a plate. 

The main ingredients of this recipe need to be kept exactly as they are for the cakes to turn out well, but there are a few ways you can make them your own:

• Add a dash of espresso powder to the batter for a stronger chocolatey flavour (without it tasting like coffee).
• Add a few drops of mint, coconut or orange extract to the batter.
• Add some chopped nuts or shredded coconut to the batter.
• Use almond butter or coconut butter instead of peanut butter.
• Swap the dark chocolate in the middle for vegan white chocolate.
• Use vegan chocolate spread in the middle.
• Pop a vegan peanut butter cup in the middle
• Put some vegan caramel or date caramel in the middle

Serve the vegan lava cakes immediately with your topping of choice. I personally don't think you can beat some dairy-free vanilla ice-cream, or as I used in the photos, a vanilla peanut butter swirl one, but you could also top them with:

• a dusting of powdered sugar or cocoa
• vegan cream or vegan yogurt
• caramel sauce or date caramel
• roasted strawberries
• berry compote or fresh raspberries or strawberries
• vegan custard

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