This easy recipe for Nutella Lava cake is the perfect dinner party dessert to wow your guests. Step-by-step photos teach you how to bake this chocolate hazelnut lava cake recipe.
I love having dinner parties something about cooking for people makes me so happy. And when you're having a dinner party you can eat the extra slice of garlic bread or cake, heck both! So basically a dinner party is an excuse for me to pig out, and pigging out on homemade fresh food is my all-time favorite.
To have a successful dinner party you need good time management skills. You've got multiple dishes or parts of one dish going at a time. So I always love to have at least one dish a make-ahead dish. This Nutella Lava Cake is perfect for that.
You can make the batter, pour them into the ramekins, wrap it in plastic, and store it in the fridge before ready to bake. And since they only take around 15 minutes to bake it is a quick dessert. It's also a WOW dessert. Because who doesn't love oozing Nutella? Yeah, no one.
And the second amazing part of this recipe is that it takes all of 5 minutes to prepare. You could leave out the Frangelico but I think it's nice to add booze to anything I can 😉 Vanilla extract would be a perfect swap for the Frangelico. But hazelnut liqueur in a Nutella Lava Cake is just meant to be!
Let's get to the recipe.
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Ingredients
For this chocolate dessert you will need:
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate. My preference is to use Calleabut Chocolate Callets or Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Bar, chopped up. Just use good quality stuff, you get the jist!
- Salted Butter. You could use unsalted and throw in a pinch of salt when you fold the flour in. I just think salted butter has SO much more flavor so I always use it!
- Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur. I love making cocktails with Frangelico so I have it on hand. If you don't you could use vanilla extract instead.
- Eggs. You'll need two whole eggs and two egg yolks, so a total of 4 egg yolks and 2 egg whites.
- Confectioners Sugar. Also known as powdered sugar. This sweetens the cake up nicely!
- All-Purpose Flour. Make sure you measure properly. Too much or too little flour can ruin the cake!
- Nutella. This is key to the flavor of this lava cake recipe!
And of course, you'll need a big ol' scoop of vanilla ice cream to serve with each cake. I also like to add fresh berries and some roasted hazelnuts. The hazelnuts help visually tell the story of what the recipe is.
Baking is a science and to really achieve the best results I highly recommend investing in a kitchen scale. This OXO Kitchen Scale is the one I use and is also the number one recommended kitchen scale by Cook's Illustrated. Think about it -what one person scoops into a "cup" is completely different from what someone else scoops!
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425F/218C if baking right away. Use a non-stick baking spray to heavily grease four 8-oz ramekins set aside.
In a microwave-safe bowl add the chocolate callets or chopped chocolate and add butter. Cook for 30-second increments, only 1 or 2 sessions should be fine. Whisk the chocolate and butter together in between increments. Once butter is fully melted chocolate should melt quickly as well, you don't want to burn the mixture
In a bowl whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and Frangelico. After the chocolate-butter mixture has cooled for 5 minutes whisk in the eggs until fully combined.
Then mix in powdered sugar, this will loosen the batter.
Finally mix in the flour, just until white streaks disappear.
Be careful not to overmix the batter, a couple spots of flour are okay.
Pour ¼ of batter into each ramekin. Top with a tablespoon of Nutella and use your clean finger to gently press the Nutella down a bit.
Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, just until the cake is mostly set.
Let the cake cool for 3 minutes. Use a knife to loosen the cake and use a towel (the ramekins will be hot) to help you invert the cake onto a serving plate. Serve each Nutella lava cake with vanilla ice cream, berries, and roasted hazelnuts.
Is there anything better than a warm chocolate dessert topped with rich, creamy vanilla ice cream?! I am in heaven every time I eat this.
( I mean look at that photo, scrumpdidlieumptious)
Make sure to check out my how to make chocolate lava cakes post with step-by-step photos for the classic recipe!
FAQ
A chocolate souffle is fully baked where a chocolate lava cake is not baked all the way so you have a liquidy chocolate center that oozes out.
Yes! You can prepare the lava cakes up until just before you put them in the oven. Once the batter is in the ramekin cover it with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking.
You can use a cupcake/muffin tin to bake the lava cakes. You'll end up with 6 lava cakes instead of 4, and they will take less time to bake. You could also use custard cups or steamed pudding cups, like the ones I use for my individual sticky toffee pudding recipe.
You will get 6 cupcake size muffins to bake for 7-9 minutes.
More chocolate hazelnut recipes
If you love Nutella then my Nutella Brownie recipe is for you!! So rich, fudgy, honestly perfection!
Now some might say that pumpkin is only an autumn flavor to bake with but I love it year-round. This Nutella pumpkin bread is freaking outrageous we devour the whole loaf in a day.
This Banana Cake with Nutella Ganache my friend Becca makes looks UNREAL!
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★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!
PrintRecipe Card
Nutella Lava Cake
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 Servings 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Chocolate Lava Cake is taken to the next level by adding Nutella. This Nutella Lava Cake will be your go-to dessert for dinner parties or Monday nights!
Ingredients
- 2.5oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate ( I use Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Bars)
- 5 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- 1 Tablespoons Frangelico Hazelnut Liqueur
- 1 Large Egg +2 Large Egg Yolks
- 60 grams (½ Cup) Confectioners Sugar
- 42 grams (⅓ Cup) All-Purpose Flour
- 4 Tablespoons Nutella
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F/218C if baking right away. Use a non-stick baking spray to heavily grease four 8-oz ramekins set aside.
- In a microwave-safe bowl add the chocolate callets or chopped chocolate and add butter. Cook for 30-second increments, only 1 or 2 sessions should be fine. Whisk the chocolate and butter together in between increments. Once butter is fully melted chocolate should melt quickly as well, you don't want to burn the mixture
- In a bowl whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and Frangelico. After the chocolate-butter mixture has cooled for 5 minutes whisk in the eggs until fully combined. Then mix in powdered sugar and finally mix in the flour, just until white streaks disappear.
- Pour ¼ of batter into each ramekin. Top with a tablespoon of Nutella and use your clean finger to gently press the Nutella down a bit.
- Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, just until the outside of the cake is set the center will still look very soft. Let the cake cool for 3 minutes. Use a knife to loosen the cake and use a towel (the ramekins will be hot) to help you invert the cake onto a serving plate. Serve with vanilla ice cream, berries, and roasted hazelnuts.
Notes
Make-ahead instructions: You can prepare the cakes up until step 4. Once the Nutella has been pushed down cover each with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking.
Cupcake size lava cakes: You will get 6 cupcake size muffins, I would use 1 teaspoon of Nutella in each. Bake for 7-9 minutes.
Keywords: chocolate hazelnut lava cake, hazelnut chocolate lava cake, nutella lava cake recipe
This post was originally published January 22, 2016 as of July 26, 2021 the recipe and photos have been updated.
Laura Dembowski says
Is it wrong that dinner parties are too much work for me? Instead I'll make this and eat it all!!! *does evil laugh*
Elizabeth says
Lol not wrong at all, I am a weirdo and sign up to do too many things with no time, so a stressful dinner party is right up my alley.
Julianne @ Beyond Frosting says
Now this I have to have!
Jocelyn @BruCrew Life says
Hand raised over here...I love oozing Nutella! I cannot wait to try these!
Kayle (The Cooking Actress) says
I LOVE lava cake (esp for entertaining) and omg with Nutella?? These ones are killerrr!
Mansi says
We made these tonight because lava cake is my favorite and who doesn't love Nutella?! They were a huge hit!! So freaking good. We didn't find the hazelnut liqueur this time and it still tasted really good, I plan to find it and make it again. Thanks for a new favorite!!
Elizabeth says
So pleased to hear they were a hit!! Thanks for letting me know Mansi! 🙂
Priscilla says
These look so chocolatey and creamy, I can't wait to make these for date night for me and my husband!
★★★★★