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Alternative names | mi-cuit au chocolat, Lava cake, chocolate lava cake, molten chocolate lava cake, volcano cake |
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Course | Dessert |
Place of origin | France |
Main ingredients | Butter, eggs, sugar, chocolate |
Molten chocolate cake is a French dessert that consists of a chocolate cake with a liquid chocolate core. It is named for that molten center, [1] and it is also known as mi-cuit au chocolat, chocolat coulant ("flowing"), [2] chocolate lava cake, or simply lava cake. [3] It should not be confused with fondant au chocolat, a recipe that contains little flour, but much chocolate and butter, hence melting on the palate (but not on the plate). [4]
French chef Michel Bras said that he invented the cake in 1981, after two years of experimentation, with his original inspiration being a family group warming themselves up after a skiing trip by drinking hot chocolate. [5] French chef and chocolatier Jacques Torres confirms that such a dessert existed in France in the 1980s. [3]
French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, for his part, said that he invented the dish in New York City in 1987. He recalled pulling a chocolate sponge cake from the oven before it was done and finding that the center was still runny, but warm with both a good taste and texture. [3] He has been credited with popularizing the molten chocolate cake in the United States, where it became an almost de rigueur inclusion on high-end restaurant dessert menus in the 1990s. [3] [6]
The two recipes are not at all similar, even though the resulting dish is. Bras's recipe is made in two parts: a frozen ganache core, covered by a rice starch dough, and baked in a mold. Vongerichten's recipe is simpler: a chocolate cake batter made from normal flour, baked briefly in a very hot oven. The flowing chocolate center is therefore arrived at differently in the two recipes, but Vongerichten's has proved more popular, being easier to reproduce. [2]
Molten chocolate cakes characteristically contain five ingredients: butter, eggs, sugar, chocolate, and flour. [3] The butter and chocolate are melted together, while the eggs are either whisked with the sugar to form a thick paste, producing a denser pastry, or separated, with the white whipped into a meringue to provide more lift and a lighter result. A tablespoon of strong coffee is sometimes added to enhance the chocolate flavor. Vanilla extract, salt, and cinnamon are additionally recommended in some cases to add extra flavor. [7]
The cakes are typically baked in individual portions in ramekins, or brioche molds. However, there are a number of creative variations in chocolate lava cakes or molten chocolate cakes such as preparing the cakes in a coffee or tea mug. A variation of the cake can be prepared in a microwave oven. [8]
A scoop of ice cream, fresh fruit, a drizzling of fruit and/or chocolate sauce, and dustings of powdered sugar are typical enhancements. Mint leaves are sometimes used as a garnish.[ citation needed ]
Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate and which share features with desserts such as pastries, meringues, custards, and pies.
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce to the thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used in custard desserts or dessert sauces and typically include sugar and vanilla; however, savory custards are also found, e.g., in quiche.
Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water, and shortening that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as bakers' confectionery. The word "pastries" suggests many kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder, and eggs. Small tarts and other sweet baked products are called pastries as a synecdoche. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts, quiches, croissants, and pasties.
A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Chocolate chip cookies are claimed to have originated in the United States in 1938, when Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar and added the chopped chocolate to a cookie recipe; however, historical recipes for grated or chopped chocolate cookies exist prior to 1938 by various other authors.
Louisiana Creole cuisine is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana, United States, which blends West African, French, Spanish, and Native American influences, as well as influences from the general cuisine of the Southern United States.
A pancake is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan, often frying with oil or butter. It is a type of batter bread. Archaeological evidence suggests that pancakes were probably eaten in prehistoric societies.
A muffin is an individually portioned baked product; however, the term can refer to one of two distinct items: a part-raised flatbread that is baked and then cooked on a griddle, or a quickbread that is chemically leavened and then baked in a mold. While quickbread "American" muffins are often sweetened, there are savory varieties made with ingredients such as corn and cheese, and less sweet varieties like traditional bran muffins. The flatbread "English" variety is of British or other European derivation, and dates from at least the early 18th century, while the quickbread originated in North America during the 19th century. Both types are common worldwide today.
A soufflé is a baked egg dish originating in France in the early 18th century. Combined with various other ingredients, it can be served as a savoury main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler, which means to blow, breathe, inflate or puff.
Cheesecake is a dessert made with a soft fresh cheese, eggs, and sugar. It may have a crust or base made from crushed cookies, graham crackers, pastry, or sometimes sponge cake. Cheesecake may be baked or unbaked, and is usually refrigerated.
Rice pudding is a dish made from rice mixed with water or milk and other ingredients such as cinnamon, vanilla, and raisins.
Torta caprese is a flourless Italian cake made with chocolate and either almonds or hazelnuts. Named for the island of Capri from which it originates, the cake is widely known and especially popular in nearby Naples, Italy.
Chocolate cake or chocolate gâteau is a cake flavored with melted chocolate, cocoa powder, or both.
A génoise, also known as Genoese cake or Genovese cake, is a French sponge cake named after the city of Genoa and associated with French cuisine. It was created by François Massialot in the late 17th century. Instead of using chemical leavening, air is suspended in the batter during mixing to provide volume.
A charlotte is a type of bread pudding that can be served hot or cold. It is also referred to as an "icebox cake". Bread, sponge cake, crumbs or biscuits/cookies are used to line a mold, which is then filled with a fruit puree or custard. The baked pudding could then be sprinkled with powdered sugar and glazed with a salamander, a red-hot iron plate attached to a long handle, though modern recipes would likely use more practical tools to achieve a similar effect.
Flourless chocolate cake is a dense cake made from an aerated chocolate custard. The first documented form of the cake was seen in Ferrara, Italy, though some forms of the cake have myths surrounding their origins. The dessert contains no gluten which makes it acceptable for those with celiac disease, gluten-free diets, and during religious holidays in which gluten and grains are not permitted.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognised today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge. Cakes are available in many flavours and have many recipes as well. Sponge cakes have become snack cakes via the Twinkie.
Clementine cake is a cake flavored primarily with clementines. It may be topped with a sweet glaze or sauce, powdered sugar, honey and clementines, or candied clementines. It may originate from an orange cake in Sephardic cuisine. In popular culture, the cake played a minor part in the plot of the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
A banana cake is a cake prepared using banana as a primary ingredient and typical cake ingredients. It can be prepared in various manners, including as a layer cake, as muffins and as cupcakes. Steamed banana cake is found in Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian and Vietnamese cuisine. In the Philippines, the term "banana cake" refers to banana bread introduced during the American colonial period of the Philippines.
Pie in American cuisine has roots in English cuisine and has evolved over centuries to adapt to American cultural tastes and ingredients. The creation of flaky pie crust shortened with lard is credited to American innovation.