Molten Chocolate Souffle and Lava Cakes

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 359: Molten Chocolate Souffle and Lava Cakes

I wasn't sure if i wanted to make this cake till very last min, ie Sunday evening.  When i flip through the recipe, i realised that i had to make the ganache beforehand and chill it and then make the batter and chill it again.  So i did the short cut way..actually i did a lot of short cuts..lol!  After baking from this book from almost a year, i find Rose's recipes very long-winded. 

For the ganache centers, i microwaved the chocolate and cream instead of using a double-boiler and whisked them together. Then i spooned them into egg carton as instructed and i put in the freezer for 30mins instead of waiting for several hours.  Works pretty well. :D 

Then while waiting for the ganache to 'freeze'..i went ahead with making the batter.  I used non-stick paper cups instead of silicon containers.  Again..instead of double boiler..i just microwave the butter, chocolate and cocoa powder and whisk them together till smooth. Works very well and save time.   Not a lot of egg whites for me to bring out my KA mixer out of the cabinet, so i just used a hand mixer instead.   After mixing the chocolate mixture with the eggwhite, i filled the paper cups with the batter.  Not too sure if i should fill it to 3/4 or not since i think my cups pretty huge..and i pushed the ganache centres right to the bottom..then i realised immediately after that i shouldn't! :P  Too late!  

I think i must have put too much batter into the cup...since the batter ballooned up above the cup while in the oven but it did shrink quite a lot after it cooled.

Because of these non-stick paper cups, the souffle just shrank away from the sides without the need to pop it out carefully..it will just pop out anyway when you turn it out..lol!   

I put them in the freezer for 1 hour so we can eat 2 hours later instead of the next day...and transferred it to the fridge for another hour plus.  After, took it out from the fridge and turn the cup around and the souffle just came out easily.   My souffle looked quite ugly though..lol!  

Microwaved for 20 secs and then all ready to be eaten.  See the 'lava' oozing out..except as i mentioned earlier, i pushed it too way down to the bottom, so the chocolate is oozing out from the bottom instead of from centre.   That's one ugly looking molten lava cake..lol!   

Verdict:  It's yummy but i think it's a bit bland as well as a bit bitter. Well, i don't mind since i love dark bitter chocolate, but i think for those who doesn't like dark chocolate, probably will find it on the bitter side.   Best eaten with a scoop of ice-cream.  If you ask me for my opinion, i don't really like this souffle texture on the outside and i prefer the rich original molten lava cake, ie, rich on the outside as well as on the inside...and also less time consuming to make.  However, my daughter, husband and helper all said it's delicious (they are all not chocoholics like me..)...or rather in my daughter's words "feels healthier since it's not as rich".