Molten Chocolate Cakes

While on our September cruise to the Caribbean with friends we were introduced to Carnival's Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes. This left us with the extreme desire to recreate the experience at home. During the kitchen tour we were gifted with a copy of the recipe used by Carnival's chef's, but obviously this would need to be scaled down quite a bit. In this month's Everyday with Rachael Ray there was a similar recipe. Being that we were snowed in due to the crazy mid-Atlantic storm that was in progress and my guilt for being far too pregnant to help with any sort of shoveling...plus the fact that all of the ingredients were on hand, I decided to surprise my hubby with a tasty dessert. I made some changes since there was no need for us to consume 6 cakes between the two of us, and mixing chocolate and mint is not one of Hubby's favorite things. The result was mighty tasty although not quite as rich and decedent as the ones from our cruise (which may or may not be a good thing ;-)

Molten Chocolate Cakes
Serves 2

Ingredients
1/2 sticks (2 ounces) unsalted butter
2 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons flour
10 peanut butter chips
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 450°. Grease and flour two 6-ounce ramekins. Melt the butter and chocolate, whisking until smooth.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg, yolk and granulated sugar at high speed until pale and very thick, about 8 minutes (crucial to get these eggs all beat up!) Whisk in the chocolate mixture, then the flour until just combined.
3. Divide the batter among the prepared ramekins and submerge 5 peanut butter chips in the center of each. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and bake until set but still slightly jiggly in the center, 12 minutes or so.

4. Invert the cakes onto plates, wait a few seconds and remove the ramekins. Dust with the confectioners' sugar and serve immediately.
   (I served mine with some whipped cream and a little scoop of Mississippi Mud Pie ice cream...so tasty!)

You can put just about any melt-able candy in the center of these little cakes, or just leave them plain. Or try as many combos as you can think of and pick your favorite! (I think that's going to be my vote!)