Ramekin S’mores Lava Cakes for EVERY Occasion!

Happy day, friends!  Today I’m comin’ at ya with a super easy Ramekin S’mores Lava Cake recipe, with a couple modifications I made along the way and 2 variations on this recipe – one, for you gluten free/vegetarian friends, and two, for those looking for a fun holiday twist! Plus, who doesn’t love a good ramekin recipe?!  These cute little dishes mean each guest gets their own personal dessert, without feeling too guilty for eating more than they maybe intended!

So let me lay this out there straight up.  I’m not a baker.  Let me say that again for the peeps in the back. I. AM. NOT. A. BAKER.  Seriously.  My mom is the baker.  I love to cook, but not bake.  Baking is like this exercise in PTSD for me that brings me back to me college days of being a biology major and hating every chemistry class I took.  Because let’s be real, baking is chemistry.  Cooking is just a crap shoot, and one that almost always turns out well so long as you don’t burn whatever it is your cooking.  Throw whatever you want into your dinner dish and you’re still good to go.  Add a smidge too much flour to your cookie dough and those things taste like cardboard.

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But alas, I’ve decided I desperately (DESPERATELY) want to be a baker!  Growing up I always remember my mom and grandmother baking ALL the things at the holidays, and I want to be able to carry on that tradition when my husband and I have kids. And I’d rather figure all that out now, rather than wait until I have a small child I have to keep alive at the same time.  Ya feel me?

So, my first foray into BECOMING A BAKER 101 were these s’mores lava cakes!  The recipe is from Tiffany over at Creme de la Crumb – full credit to her!  However, let me go ahead and say this again – I AM NOT A BAKER.  So these instructions were not user friendly to me, because how the heck do I know to melt the butter before I put the chocolate chips into the saucepan (because if the choc chips are on the bottom of the pain they will BURN!)?! I DON’T! Well, I do now, but I didn’t then.  And coming from me, not a baker, I believe baking should be SO accessible to anyone who wants to learn, that it should be like, I don’t know, as easy as breathing? (Okay, maybe not THAT easy, but close!)

So below, I’ve listed the few things I modified along the way, along with super specific instructions and tips/tricks so even all you non-bakers out there can make these.  And trust me, you’re gonna want to, because they are DAMN delicious!

Classic Ramekin S’mores Lava Cake Ingredients (6 servings):

Prep:

Lava Cake

• 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) butter
• 2/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• 2 eggs, + 2 egg yolks, at room temperature (mine were cold and it didn’t seem to make a difference)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• 3 Hazelnut Pirouettes cut in halves

These are your basic ingredients, plus 4 eggs!

Now, before we go any further, let me go ahead and say that the original recipe said the prep time was 15 minutes.  LIES.  Okay, maybe not a lie if you’re a baker, but I’m… well, you know.  So what was supposed to take 15 minutes took me like, an hour.  So if you too are a novice at these kinds of things, don’t preheat your oven until you’re nearly ready to actually bake the cakes (see below).  If you’re a pro, well then, turn your oven on now and laugh at how slow I am!  The original recipe also said this would make 4 servings, but I got 6. Maybe my ramekins were smaller?  I’m not sure.  I also know I LOVE me some graham cracker crust so my crust was SUPER thick, which left less room for the cake part.  In any event, let’s just call this 4-6 servings, depending on your preference.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 (Or don’t, if you’re a newbie like me.)  Spray each ramekin with Pam, coating all of the inside of the ramekin. Put the 3 tablespoons of sugar into one ramekin, and shake and turn the ramekin to coat it with sugar (this part can be messy if you’re spastic like me)! Pour the remaining sugar into next ramekin, turn to coat and so on. Discard any excess sugar at the end.  Place ramekins on a baking sheet.

2. Place graham cracker sheets in your food processor and blend until you are left with fine crumbs. Add 3 tablespoons of sugar and pulse again. Add 8 tablespoons of melted butter and pulse until mixed thoroughly. Use your hands (wash them first!) and press mixture into the bottoms of the ramekins. (You may have some left over, simply discard it if you do – or if you’re like me and love graham crackers and also don’t want to be wasteful, just keep adding until you have deliciously thick crusts)!

3. Whisk 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks with 1/4 cup of sugar until light and foamy (3-4 minutes). NOW PREHEAT YOUR OVEN TO 425!

4. In a small sauce pan, melt 8 tablespoons of butter until melted. NOW mix in your chocolate chips and melt on LOW heat. This will take a bit of time.  You will wonder if these things will ever melt, but they will, I promise.  Alternatively, you could pre-melt your chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl for about 1.5 -2 minutes on power level 3.  It will help them melt a bit quicker.  You could also use what my coworker called a double boiler, but I’m not even going to pretend to know what that means, so definitely google that and get back to me!

5. Mix melted chocolate into egg-sugar mixture. Whisk in 1 tablespoon of flour.

6. Pour batter into ramekins, on top of the graham cracker crust, leaving about 3/4″-1″ of space at the top because they will rise and you still need space for your marshmallows. Bake until edges are puffy, about 13-15 minutes.

7. Remove the ramekins from the oven and switch the oven from bake to low broil. Carefully place mini marshmallows on top of the baked lava cakes – the ramekins will be HOT, so emphasis on “carefully”!  Return the cakes to the oven and broil 2-3 minutes, or just until marshmallows are lightly toasted and browned.  Keep a close eye on these, you don’t want to burn them!  The cakes are best served hot, but they also reheat beautifully for about 20 seconds in the microwave! 

8. Remove from oven and insert half hazelnut pirouette cookies into top of cake for added flair and yumminess!

9. Optional – add fun holiday touch (think halloween rings, sprinkles, a faux flower, etc!)  But please, for the love of cleanliness, wash all these plastic things first! Also please to not microwave your plastic decor! (I know, this may seem obvious, but I’m trying to be as specific as possible here!) 😛

Gluten Free S’mores Lava Cake Substitutions:

• Substitute marshmallows for gluten free/gelatin free marshmallows.  That’s actually what I used here, cut into fourths.  They were quite tasty!
• Substitute flour for coconut or almond flour (or other GF flour of your choice).
• Substitute graham crackers for these GF grahams!

Fun Holiday S’mores Lava Cake Substitutions:

Imagine a s’mores lava cake – but RED! Because how fun would that be for Christmas?!

• Replace current CAKE portion of this recipe with JUST THE CAKE portion of this red velvet lava cake recipe from Southern Living!  So, leave out the chocolate ball portion and just substitute the actual cake!

And there you have it! Ramekin S’mores Lava Cakes for any occasion and any diet! Except if you’re actually on a diet, in which case these might be bad.  Really really bad. And let’s face it… Kids love s’mores, adults love s’mores, we ALL LOVE s’mores.  So what better way to elevate a classic s’more into a fun, self contained dessert in a ramekin, no fire needed?!  I adjusted mine for the season and made them Halloween style, but like I said above, these can really be everything and anything you want them to be, for truly any occasion!

Happy baking, friends!  And if you try these, let me know in the comments below!

XO,

Ana

(P.S. How AMAZING would these be with cinnamon graham crackers as the crust, too?! That might have to be my next modification)!

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