Mediocre Kitchen Madness: January Edition

Haley Luersen and Maggie Schroeder|January 13, 2021

– Hi everyone, this is Haley…

– and this is Maggie…

– and today we’re welcoming you to another edition of Mediocre Kitchen Madness- January edition!

– In this edition, we’ll be bringing you a chocolate-y favorite: chocolate lava cakes. 

– I found the recipe, yet again, on Sally’s Baking Addiction, the same website which brought us the delicious pumpkin pie that we created in our Thanksgiving edition. 

– I can still taste that pumpkin pie… it was phenomenal. 

– Me too… But enough about that, it’s lava cake time! 

– First, you’ll want to gather your ingredients. Although there aren’t too many, this recipe is still a blast to create.

 

  • 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • Cocoa powder
  • Baking spray

 

– We made one simple swap, replacing the six ounces of chopped semi-sweet chocolate with six ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips. It saved us a ton of time and tasted…

– …what we hope was…

– the same.

 

Get four 6 ounce ramekins. These will be your “tins” for the lava cakes. If you do not have ramekins, use a muffin tin.

 

– I didn’t know what a ramekin was. It sounds like the friend of a Ramen noodle. 

– I think your ramen noodle obsession has taken over…

 

Coat your ramekins in a layer of baking spray, then sprinkle cocoa powder inside the ramekins. This is to prevent the cakes from sticking later.

 

– We did not sprinkle the cocoa.

– No, we got carried away and *coated* them in a very thick layer. It still somehow worked, though. 

 

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. 

Place butter into a medium, heat-proof, bowl. Add the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate as well. Microwave on high in ten-second increments. 

 

– We microwaved it for a solid thirty seconds to start, and nothing really happened. 

– If you want to save yourself some time in pressing buttons, just nuke it for a while. 

 

Stir together the butter and chocolate until completely smooth. Set aside.

 

– I had to stop Maggie from eating the chocolate concoction several times.

– I may have snuck some when you weren’t looking… maybe. 

– MAGGIE! NO!

 

Whisk flour, salt, and confectioners’ sugar together in a small mixing bowl. 

Whisk the eggs and egg yolks together until combined in a separate small bowl.

 

– When separating the yolks from the whites, try not to break the yolks. It significantly increases the difficulty of the task.

– We definitely do not know this from any first-hand experience… 

 

Pour the flour mixture and the eggs into the chocolate mixture. 

 

– Oh boy did we mess this up…

– Our bowl for the chocolate was too small to fit all of the ingredients, so we had to pour the chocolate and eggs into the flour…

– This was not the move. Don’t do this. Please. It doesn’t stir very well.

 

Gently whisk until the ingredients are combined and all lumps have dissipated. 

Spoon batter evenly into the ramekins, then place them on a baking sheet. 

Bake for 12-14 minutes until the sides appear solid and firm, but the top will still look soft.

 

– We did not do that.

– Instead, we had a dance party and ate chocolate pretzels while the cakes burned in the oven. 

– They were just extra crispy. 

 

Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool for one minute. Cover each with an inverted plate and turn over. The cakes should fall out of the ramekins and onto the plates.

 

– I burnt myself doing this. The cakes were HOT. 

– Well, I did tell you to not grab the hot glass with your bare hands but whatever.

 

Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve immediately! 

 

– I was genuinely surprised that this turned out so well.

– Yeah, we had a quite questionable process, but the outcome was near perfect.

– Overall, I’d give these a 9/10. I’m a sucker for anything chocolate, slightly over baked or not.

– I’d give them an 8/10, only because I wish the lava was more dramatic.

– Nevertheless, this isn’t going to stop us from trying the chocolate peanut butter version, also found on our good pal Sally’s Baking Addiction website… 

 

Thank you for reading the January edition of Mediocre Kitchen Madness. If you try this recipe, email pictures to [email protected] or [email protected] to be potentially featured in the next edition!

(Please, someone try this…we’re desperate for attention…)