Chocolate Fondant

A quick and easy Chocolate Fondant for the perfect warm and cosy dessert! Recipe with step-by-step photos.

Chocolate Fondant

One of my go-to, middle-of-the-week, easy-to-make desserts is this Chocolate Fondant, also known as Chocolate Lava Cake, Molten Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Pudding, Moelleux au chocolat … one dessert, so many names!

A Chocolate Fondant is a dessert which is cake-like around the edges, but with a soft and oozy centre, hence why it is sometimes called a Lava Cake or Molten Chocolate Cake. If you love warm and cosy desserts, you will love this recipe.

Chocolate Fondant Recipe

This Chocolate Fondant recipe is super quick and easy – 10 minutes to prepare, and about 12 minutes to bake.

What’s also great about this recipe is that all of the ingredients are likely to already be in your fridge and pantry. As an avid baker, I always have a good supply of dark chocolate on hand. And the remaining ingredients are items we typically have at home.

So if we happen to have unexpected guests for dinner, I know I can whip up this Chocolate Fondant at short notice. These days, our unexpected guests are usually our childrens’ friends who sometimes stretch out their playdates at the last minute to include dinner. Most kids I know love this dessert – just be sure to warn them about the very hot centre!

I often bake them in smaller ramekins for the kids, but I happen to prefer the smaller portions for myself, too.

And for any fussy kids, you could always bake the puddings for a bit longer and serve up mini chocolate cakes instead.

How to Serve Chocolate Fondant

Chocolate Fondant is often served unmoulded on a plate, so that you can see the molten chocolate centre ooze out onto the plate once you cut through it with a spoon.

I happen to prefer serving Chocolate Fondant in a ramekin. I love the crackled top of the cake, which is almost brownie-like in appearance, and which you would otherwise not see if you invert the cake onto a plate to unmould it. And I also like to keep the molten centre contained because the dessert then keeps warmer for longer.

As it is a fairly rich dessert, some plain vanilla ice-cream works really well alongside this Chocolate Fondant, or even a very good quality crème frâiche, such as the Isigny crème frâiche from France.

How to Make Chocolate Fondant

Step 1

Melt the butter and chocolate in a bain-marie or on low power in the microwave in short bursts. Whisk the chocolate mixture together and then set it aside to cool slightly.

Step 2

In a large measuring jug or a bowl with a pouring spout, whisk together the eggs, sugar, flour and salt.

Step 3

Add the chocolate mixture to the batter, and whisk until you have a smooth batter.

Step 4

Generously butter the ramekins. For the recipe below, I have used ramekins with a capacity of 250 ml/1 cup. You could also use smaller ramekins, but you will need to adjust the baking time accordingly.

If you don’t have ramekins, any oven-proof ceramic mould would work, such as small mugs or teacups.

If you prefer to serve your Chocolate Fondants unmoulded, in addition to greasing the moulds or ramekins with butter, I also recommend dusting them with flour or cocoa powder. This will help the cakes to unmould more easily.

Fill the ramekins halfway with the batter.

At this stage, you can proceed to bake the Chocolate Fondants right away, or cover them with plastic wrap and keep them in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Step 5

Bake the Chocolate Fondants for about 12 minutes. The cakes should generally be puffed and risen with a cracked topping, and the centre should be molten.

However, this is one of those recipes where you might have to experiment before you will have a good idea of how long the baking time should be. It might be a good idea to experiment with one ramekin first before baking all of them.

The baking time will vary depending on:

• Your oven
• The size and thickness of your ramekins
• How much batter is in the ramekins
• How gooey you like the centre to be

Make Ahead Tips

A great advantage about this Chocolate Fondant recipe is that you can make everything ahead of time, even 2-3 days ahead, and bake it just before serving. If you are baking them straight from the fridge, you might need to give the ramekins an extra few minutes of baking time. They will bake and rise beautifully in the oven as per normal.

Any baked Chocolate Fondants can also be reheated in the microwave, or even back in the oven, to serve as a warm chocolate cake.

More Dessert Recipes

If you are looking for more dessert recipes, you might also like:

Easy Tiramisu

Profiteroles with Chocolate Ganache

Sunken Chocolate Amaretto Cake

Print