Every year my family has an Oscars Viewing Party where we eat some good food, watch the show and try to guess the winners by filling out Oscar ballots (with a $5 entry fee of course…we are quite competitive).

We usually enjoy some sort of dessert with our Oscars feast and this year the dessert did not disappoint.  Enter Molten Chocolate Cakes aka lava cakes with vanilla ice cream.  After a few decadent bites I knew I needed this recipe immediately.

Sure enough, it was a Martha Stewart recipe and quite a simple one at that.  This is an easy recipe with minimal ingredients and steps but create delicious little cakes that will leave you wanting more.

Molten Chocolate Cakes by Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease your muffin tin with either butter or cooking spray. Dust with granulated sugar, and tap out excess. Set aside.
2.  Cream the butter and granulated sugar in a bowl until fluffy.  This can either be done with a stand mixer (ie Kitchen Aid) or an electric hand mixer.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, beat in flour and salt until just combined. Beat in chocolate until just combined. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.
3. Place muffin tin on a baking sheet; bake just until tops of the cakes no longer jiggle when the pan is lightly shaken, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven; let stand 10 minutes.
4. To serve, turn out cakes, and place on serving plates, bottom sides up. Dust with powdered sugar and garnish with ice cream or whipped cream, depending on your preference.

I don’t know which part is more delicious – the crumbly cake exterior or the gooey chocolate center.  Either way, this recipe is definitely golden in my book.