This month’s Cake Slice baking group cake is a fun and easy one – Individual Warm Chocolate Cakes.

Compared to some of the others in the book (The Cake Book by Tish Boyle), this recipe is pretty quick and simple.  There are only 6 ingredients, all normal pantry and fridge items.    It really didn’t take much time at all to put the batter together, and it bakes up in only 10-15 minutes (your times may vary).

Interestingly, each baker found this cake a little different – for some, it was a molten cake, with a flowing liquid center.  For others, it is just a delicious little cake.  For me, it was not liquidy, which is exactly how I prefer it (I’ve never been a fan of the molten thing).

I only filled my ramekins about halfway because I wanted to make smaller portions (trying to watch the calories, you know).  This worked out fine.  The little cakes rose up above the ramekins anyway, making me wonder if filling them more would even work, but then they did sink as they cooled.  Perhaps filling them more would have resulted in a denser cake, rather than a higher-rising one, but we liked them this way just fine.

The smaller portion was perfect for me – this is a delicious, chocolatey cake with a shattering, crisp crust from the sugar-dusted sides of the ramekins in which they are baked.  We tried them dusted with powdered sugar (yum), with a dollop of meringue-style whipped topping (also yum), and also topped with some mini-marshmallows, quickly browned under the broiler (again, yum).

This recipe would also probably work great for entertaining – just make up your batter and fill your ramekins ahead of time.  After 10-15 minutes in the oven, just serve them directly from the ramekins, or inverted onto a plate or bowl.  You could make them even smaller to stretch the recipe farther, if needed, and to make them easy to handle for guests.

This recipe will definitely be going into my keeper file and will probably see lots of use.  Thanks Tish!