Seduce Me Chocolate Fondant

Molten Chocolate Fondant or Lover, I mean..Lava Cake 😉 with some leftover caramel ice cream

Ooooh, baby baby baby, you sexy thang! Tonight, I whipped up a super quick and easy but oh so seductive molten chocolate fondant that sent me soaring to chocolate heaven! Indeed, it was a rapturous moment licking each spoonful of chocolate lava in all its GOOness, complemented with the added zing of orange curacao..Mmmmmmm…And with Luther Vandross crooning ‘Always and Forever’ in the background, in that equally velvety,dark and rich timbre of his voice, my endorphins are over the moon and I shall forever and always obsess over this luxurious dessert.

After the Daring Bakers challenge last week plus the incessant eating surrounding J’s birthday, and not to mention a bucketload of croissants and danishes we made in class and had to take home (fortunately, I distributed them to friends), I needed a break from all that rich food and have become too lazy to cook anything that required more than one pot so we have been eating one-pot wonder stews, soups or even just plain steamed chicken, fish and vegetables. In an attempt to be good, I have also discovered the very contagious fun of dance fitness phenomenon Zumba and have been leaping about at home like a monkey, although the image is probably closer to a hip-hopping hippo! It’s actually an exhilirating work-your-butt off fun, but tonight, I allowed myself this one wicked exception; I have no idea how chocolate fondant popped into my mind but I’m glad it did. About a year ago, whilst having coffee at the Marriott hotel with my sister Anne, we decided to order a hot chocolate jaffa fondant and man, it was gorgeous! I doubt there is any real orange juice in there but definitely I could taste either orange liquer or a combination of that with grand marnier but boy o boy did it dance on my tongue. And what a velvet smooth-as consistency.

Also known as chocolate lava or molten chocolate cake, this pudding-like dessert consist of a thin cakey exterior cradling a warm chocolate lava centre. The appeal is of course in its ooze for once you break that innocent plain looking cake exterior with a spoon, molten chocolate oozes out; a slow-motion tease. Ah, the romance of it all! 😀

So, to finish off tonight’s soup dinner, I stuck my hand in and pulled a chocolate fondant recipe out of the google-hat. (Click on recipe heading) Well, I have descended back down from chocolate paradise and it’s now back to hippo-dance for me. Yes at 12:30am, I shall shake da room with some boom boom boom…(lame remarks are a sign that I should wrap up this entry..hehehhe)

Woman&Home’s Chocolate Fondant Recipe

I have however, adapted the recipe for two and added some orange curacao to the mix(see below) and the baking time should change slightly due to the reduced portion.

Ingredients

melted butter, for greasing
cocoa powder, for dusting
70 g           dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
56 g           unsalted butter
100 g           caster sugar
0.5 tsp      vanilla extract
    2            eggs, beaten
    50g        plain flour, sifted
     1 tbsp    orange liqueur
   grated rind of 1 orange

Note: I used the jumbo, texas muffin pan to bake exactly 2 chocolate fondants.

Heat the oven to 180 C, 160 C fan, 350 F, gas 4. Brush the pudding moulds sparingly with melted butter, dust with cocoa powder and shake out the excess. Set aside.
Melt the chocolate and butter gently in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, vanilla extract, orange liquer and grated orange rind; Leave to cool slightly.
Whisk the eggs into the mixture a little at a time, then fold in the sifted flour and a little salt until you have a smooth mixture.
Divide between the moulds – each one two thirds full. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 12 minutes exactly. (I would suggest baking it at exactly 10 minutes but this all depends on the type of mould used to bake the mixture. Avoid over-cooking or else you’ll end up with a dense cake rather than molten chocolate)
Remove from the oven, run a knife round the edges, invert and tip out on to serving plates. Serve immediately with vanilla ice cream and fresh seasonal berries.