Why you’ll love them
This chocolate fondant recipe, with it’s melt-in-the-mouth chocolate cake exterior and gooey, molten chocolate middle, will become a new favourite. It’s loaded with chocolate flavour, just 6 ingredients and so quick and easy to make.
What’s more, the only specific equipment you’ll need are ramekins or dariole moulds. The chocolate fondant batter itself gets mixed together with a whisk in a regular mixing bowl.
And if all that doesn’t sell it to you, how about the fact that you can make your chocolate fondants well ahead of time and even freeze them until you need them?
Looking for another special make-ahead chocolate dessert? Try these chocolate creme brulees.
Never Miss a Recipe!
Get the latest recipes straight to your inbox!
What is a chocolate fondant?
In France, a chocolate fondant or fondant au chocolat generally refers to a larger cake with a soft but fudgy centre. For whatever reason, over the years, the name chocolate fondant has become synonymous with chocolate lava cakes as well. The name fits perfectly since “fondant” means “melting”.
I’m not sure there is any other dish with so many different names. For instance, they can be called fondants au chocolat, petit gateau, moelleux au chocolat (moelleux meaning soft) or coulant au chocolat (coulant meaning flowing) in French. In English, they’re called chocolate fondants, chocolate lava cakes, molten chocolate cakes and even chocolate volcano cakes.
The gooey chocolate “filling” is actually just batter that hasn’t fully baked and set. It will get hot enough to be safe to eat but doesn’t bake all the way through so that when you cut it open that gooey chocolate centre oozes out.
Ingredients you’ll need
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Chocolate: I recommend you use a very good quality chocolate when making chocolate lava cakes. There is no cocoa powder in the recipe, so all the flavour comes from real chocolate. Also, use a dark chocolate, milk chocolate will be too sweet and sickly since this is already a very decadent dessert. I use Lindt Smooth 70%.
- Butter: I’d stick to unsalted butter here. You can add a pinch of salt to the overall recipe if you like.
- Eggs: I use large eggs.
- Sugar: Just white granulated sugar or caster sugar is perfect here.
- Vanilla extract: While this is optional, the vanilla extract does actually serve to intensify the chocolate flavour. Stick to vanilla extract as opposed to vanilla essence though.
- Flour: You just need plain flour (aka all-purpose flour) here.
How to make chocolate fondant
It’s truly amazing how something so indulgent and delicious is actually so easy to make. You won’t need any fancy equipment beyond small ramekins or dariole moulds here. Not even an electric mixer. I most often use my ceramic ramekins purely because I like the shape of the baked chocolate lava cakes this way more than the dariole shape, but both work absolutely fine.
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Grease your moulds and preheat the oven: You want the oven to be nice and hot so make sure to preheat it 30 minutes before you start since making the chocolate fondants is so quick. Also, use some softened butter to grease your ramekins well. You can dust them with cocoa powder if you like but I find just greasing them is enough.
- Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain marie or double boiler and this just means to melt them together in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, without letting the bowl touch the water. Make sure to let it cool for 5-10 minutes so that it isn’t hot when you add the eggs.
- Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla to the cooled melted chocolate mixture and whisk it all together until well combined.
- Add the flour and this time just whisk it gently until it’s fully incorporated.
- Bake: Divide your molten chocolate cake batter among 6 ramekins and bake.
I purposely created this recipe to make 6 for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s great to bake a tester or two first. Secondly, any spares can be frozen for another time. It can be quite easily scaled though, if you’re using a kitchen scale.
- When they’re ready, there will be a patch of shiny batter about 1 inch wide. This batter is actually dry to the touch but just not fully baked. As this will be the bottom of your chocolate fondants when you turn them out, you won’t see this side. If you want to serve them in the ramekins, you can bake them just a little longer but not too long or you won’t have any chocolate lava inside.
Tips and tricks
- Don’t let the water boil rapidly when melting the chocolate: Boiling water can affect the chocolate in two ways. First, you might overheat the chocolate which probably won’t affect the cakes at all, but it will mean you’ll have to wait longer for it to cool down. The other issue boiling water can cause is spitting out a lot of steam and if any water from this gets into your chocolate it can seize rendering it useless.
- Weigh the flour: If possible, use kitchen scales to weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. You’ll get the best result this way. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, spoon the flour and sugar into your cup measures, then level off the top with a knife, without packing it down. Don’t scoop from the container.
- Make them ahead: No matter whether you’re making them for a family treat or for entertaining guests, chocolate fondants can be made ahead of time and chilled or even frozen until required – see more below.
- Do a tester: If you can spare one chocolate fondant, bake a tester so that you can find out exactly what time works for your oven and ramekins. All ovens vary and since chocolate fondants cook so quickly, it’s good to do a tester.
- Freeze any you don’t use: If you aren’t going to serve all 6 lava cakes, simply freeze the ones you won’t use before baking. See more below.
Storage
Chocolate fondant cakes are best baked right when you want to serve them. That said, they still make a perfect dessert for entertaining since the batter will happily sit in the fridge for 2-3 days and will even freeze perfectly. This is great news if you just want to make a batch for you and someone special to enjoy every night for the next few nights too!
- Fridge: Divide the batter amongst your ramekins, then place them into an airtight container or onto plate wrapped well with plastic wrap. Chocolate lava cakes will keep well in the fridge for 2-3 days. Bake them straight from the fridge adding on an extra minute or two to the baking time.
- Freezer: Divide the batter amongst your ramekins then wrap them well in plastic wrap. Place them into an airtight container and freeze up to 3 months. Alternatively, once frozen solid, you can stack them in a ziplock bag in the freezer. You can bake them straight from the freezer without thawing but may need to add an extra 2-3 minutes to the baking time.
FAQ’s
Chocolate, butter, eggs, sugar and flour – chocolate fondant is just a very simple cake batter.
A chocolate fondant might collapse if there is not enough baked cake around the outside to support the unbaked gooey centre. Flatter ramekins tend to be more foolproof than taller moulds as well.
Chocolate fondants can be stored prior to baking in the fridge or freezer.
While best baked fresh, you can reheat chocolate fondants though the inside may bake further. Place them in a preheated 180C/350F oven for 10-12 minutes. You can also reheat them in the microwave for a few mins being careful not to bake them through.
Traditionally, and with this recipe, the filling is just cake batter that has not baked. It’s perfectly safe to eat though. Sometimes other fillings are used like caramel, peanut butter or chocolate candies.
Chocolate lava cake or chocolate fondants can be served as they are with a dusting of cocoa powder or powdered sugar over the top. You can also serve them with vanilla ice cream and some lovely fresh berries.
You can try making your chocolate fondants in a muffin tin though you’ll need to experiment with baking times and turn them out onto a large baking tray all at once. Place the tray upside down over the muffin pan, then flip the whole lot over. Lift away the muffin pan and the fondants should all be sitting there. Now, use an offset spatula to transfer the fondants to individual dessert plates.
Did you try this chocolate fondant recipe?
Leaving a rating and comment below the recipe is so helpful!
Hungry for more? Subscribe to the newsletter for free recipes straight to your inbox. Also, follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
Ingredients
- 200 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa) (7oz)
- 57 g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing (¼ cup / ½ stick / 2oz)
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 105 g caster sugar (or white granulated sugar) (½ cup / 3 ½oz)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 43 g plain flour (all purp flour) (1 ½ oz)
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Small saucepan
- Medium mixing bowl
- 6 ¾ cup ramekins
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan forced) / 390F.
- Grease 6 small ramekins (approx ¾ cup volume) or dariole molds well with butter. Set aside.
- Place the butter and chocolate in a medium mixing bowl and place over a small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until melted.
- Remove the bowl from the pan and set aside to cool for 5-10 minutes, just so that it's not hot when you add the eggs.
- Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla and whisk until well combined.
- Finally, add the flour and whisk gently until just combined.
- Pour or use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter evenly amongst your greased moulds. (At this point you can chill them or freeze them until required).
- Bake 10-11 minutes (see notes 1) until a ring around the outside is firm and you can see a small shiny patch, about 2.5cm/1in in diameter, in the centre (smaller for metal moulds – see notes 2).
- Leave the cakes to cool for 2-3 minutes before unmoulding. Place a dessert plate upside down on top of the mould then, holding the ramekin with a tea towel as it will still be hot, flip the whole lot over and the cake should slip straight out. Carefully lift the ramekin off the top – using a spoon or knife to get under the rim is helpful.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Baking time: The time to bake will vary depending on your oven, and the type and size of moulds you use, and whether you’ve chilled them first. In ceramic ramekins, these take 11 minutes in my oven as soon as the batter is made, 12 minutes straight from the fridge or around 14 minutes straight from the freezer. It’s worthwhile, if you can, to test one first then bake the rest according to the results of the first.
- Different types of moulds: I have tested ceramic ramekins and metal dariole moulds of a similar size. These both took the same amount of time to bake, however the ones in the dariole moulds have a smaller shiny patch on top purely due to the shape of the mould.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission for my referral, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting Sugar Salt Magic.
