The Genius Way To Bake Chocolate Lava Cake For The Gooiest Center

Lava cake is an undeniably rich dessert that achieves all the best textures and tastes in one luxurious treat. While it's normally baked in individual ramekins until the cake exterior is cooked yet the center is still molten, there's another genius way to bake chocolate lava cake for the gooiest center: In a crockpot. To make the perfect slow cooker lava cake, all you need is to add chocolate cake batter directly to the cooking pot, dollop in generous spoonfuls of prepared chocolate pudding, and cover the whole thing with dark chocolate chips before placing on the lid and cooking the treat slowly. 

The beauty of this dessert is that it's meant to be soft, tender, and melty, making it perfect for slow cooking methods — which are generally more forgiving and gentle than baking in the oven. This means you can more comfortably make a foolproof dessert by setting the crockpot on high to do its thing for a few hours. Like with other spoonable bakes like the perfect crockpot bread pudding, when chocolate cake is slowly cooked with scoops of creamy pudding and chocolate chips, the final result is optimally baked chocolate cake with gooey and warm chocolate pudding in every bite. It's a dessert fit for any chocolate-lover, especially when eaten hot and topped with powdered sugar and vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Since the crockpot is a simple and convenient appliance to use, you can worry less about fussing with the oven and instead put more energy into preparing fun variations of the molten treat. Of course, you can use your favorite boxed cake mix, or make the chocolate cake base from scratch. And while dark, decadent chocolate cake is a classic choice for lava cake, feel free to get creative with other flavors for the batter or pudding. For instance, you can prepare caramel or banana pudding by whisking the powdered ingredients with milk until smooth and creamy, then add it in dollops atop the cake batter in the crockpot before cooking. Or try out different cake flavors like dulce de leche, red velvet, or matcha.

If chocolate cake is a non-negotiable when it comes to lava cake (we feel you), there's still room to pair inventive ingredients with your cocoa, as is done in recipes like homemade miso lava cake. You can also swap chocolate chips with peanut butter or butterscotch chips for an additional melty goodness and taste contrast with the chocolate in the recipe. Just choose a good chocolate chip brand, since quality chocolate — whatever the intensity or flavoring — will make a difference. Keep the cake and pudding full-on dark chocolate, then pair it with complementary ice cream flavors like mint, coffee, or raspberry for a truly delicious moment.