Chocolate Lava Cake

 The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays of the year. Living downtown we are able to see all kinds of fireworks and live among the patriotic celebrations. When deciding what to make for this year's Independence Day dessert I was leaning heavily towards apple pie. 

Apple pie is just one of those things that screams American tradition. However, it also causes our air conditioning bill to scream a different and very sad tune. Instead of apple pie I am going to make one of my very favorite desserts: chocolate lava cake. It is supremely delicious and can be made in a slow cooker. I got this recipe from Linda at My Kind of Cooking. This was one of the first of her recipes I ever made from her and it is still my very favorite. It will take you about ten minutes to put together and you only dirty the slow cooker, a bowl and a mixing spoon. It's honestly that easy.

This is not just any chocolate cake, it is severely chocolaty! It starts with a Devil's Food cake mix and has a delicious sauce to go over the top. One thing I do a little different than the original recipe is add coffee instead of hot water. Coffee adds a little extra flavor to the cake, but not quite how you would expect. It doesn't taste like chocolate and coffee, it just tastes like chocolate more intensely.

Ingredients

1 box of Devil's Food Cake mix

3/4 cup of water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1/2 cup of cocoa powder (unsweetened)

1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee

Vanilla Ice cream for serving (optional)

 

 First, spray your slow cooker very well with oil. The sauce made with the lava cake is ooey gooey sticky delicious and you do not want one drop of it left in your slow cooker! Combine the cake mix, water and oil in a medium bowl. Mix well and dump it into your slow cooker. 

It will seem like a very stiff brownie batter, but fret not! You did it right even if it seems oddly textured.

 Next, combine the hot coffee, cocoa powder, and sugar in the same bowl. This will also seem odd and as though you did it wrong. Just know it will look a bit lumpy.

Pour the sauce over the cake mixture. That is pretty much it! Just cook this on high for about two hours. You will know this is done when it is almost set but not runny. After two hours, let the cake sit for about 30 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken to sticky chocolate perfection.

 

 

 Serve the lava cake with vanilla ice cream. It's like a chocolate fudge sundae and cake all together. I hope you try this out and love it!