Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes - Sally's Baking Addiction (2024)

Published: 02/10/2016Updated: 02/22/2022

Homemade peanut butter chocolate lava cakes are the ultimate dessert decadence. Each rich, fudgy, and warm chocolate cake is filled with melty peanut butter and topped with vanilla ice cream. You’ll be surprised at how quickly this indulgent dessert comes together!

Welcome to the best dessert on earth! I’m pretty sure we haven’t lived until we’ve all had a peanut butter chocolate lava cake. Today’s peanut butter version is just like my chocolate lava cakes recipe, only filled with peanut butter. The great news is that this recipe makes 4 individually sized peanut butter chocolate lava cakes and the bad news is that this recipe makes 4 individually sized peanut butter chocolate lava cakes. Let’s be honest here… self control fades fast when you have 4 chocolate lava cakes in the house.

These Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes Are:

• Rich and fudgy
• Easier than you think
• Made with only 7 ingredients
• Super quick—only 12 minutes in the oven
• Decadent and indulgent
• Gooey in the center
• Perfect for small dinner parties, date night, or as a Valentine’s Day treat
• Peanut butter + chocolate!!

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I worked at Chili’s throughout college—I know a good molten lava cake when I see one. While the molten cakes came to the restaurant frozen, a quick zap in the microwave made that chocolate completely ooze out with the first bite. Molten cakes are obviously a crowd favorite, but believe me when I say this: they’re 78,439x better made fresh at home with pure chocolate and lots of butter.

Ingredients in Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes

You only need 7 basic ingredients for today’s peanut butter chocolate lava cakes. I adapted this recipe from Food and Wine. Let’s review:

• Chocolate: Pure chocolate is the base of these lava cakes. Use quality chocolate—no cheap varieties and absolutely no chocolate chips. (Save them for your chocolate chip cookies!) You will be dreadfully disappointed if you use lower quality chocolate. I prefer Ghirardelli or Lindt.
• Butter: Butter is melted with the chocolate for incredible taste and decadence.
• Flour: We only use 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour for added structure—too much and the cakes would dry out.
• Confectioners’ Sugar: A little confectioners’ sugar sweetens the cake—don’t expect a super sweet chocolate cake. These are very rich as opposed to very sweet. In my recipe testing, I preferred confectioners’ sugar over granulated sugar. I found the cakes had a grainy texture with granulated.
• Salt: Salt adds flavor.
• Eggs: The most important ingredient! There are 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks in this recipe (2 egg whites and 4 egg yolks total)—an entire egg yolk in each cake. The egg yolks provide unique moisture and richness to each cake and the egg whites give structure, combining all the ingredients into one smooth batter and 4 sturdy cakes.
• Peanut Butter: Each lava cake is filled with creamy peanut butter. Do not use natural style peanut butter, crunchy peanut butter, or any other nut butter. The best, in my peanut butter lava cake experience, are commercial brands like creamy Jif or Skippy.

How to Make Peanut Butter Chocolate Lava Cakes

They may look fancy and complicated, but peanut butter chocolate lava cakes are incredibly simple to make. Let’s review the quick and easy steps:

1. Prepare 4 ramekins.
2. Make the chocolate cake batter.
3. Spoon the batter evenly into each ramekin.
4. Top each with peanut butter. Use a spoon to slightly press it down into the batter.
5. Bake. The high oven temperature cooks the outside of the mini cakes but leaves the center slightly gooey. 12-14 minutes and they’re done! The tops may look slightly soft.
6. Invert the ramekins. Carefully flip the freshly baked lava cakes upside down onto plates.
7. Add toppings & enjoy! Top with melted peanut butter, chocolate ganache, ice cream, sprinkles, salted caramel, or whipped cream… choose your favorites 🙂

Best Ramekins to Use

I highly recommend using ramekins for these lava cakes. Here are the 6-ounce ramekins I use and suggest you pick up as well. They’re the perfect size for these lava cakes. Grease each ramekin with a little non-stick spray and a dusting of cocoa powder before filling with batter. This preparation helps the baked lava cake release seamlessly from the ramekin onto the plate for serving.

Conveniently, you can use the same ramekins for other recipes we have published like chocolate fudge cakes, chocolate soufflé, chocolate lava cakes, lemon pudding cakes, and upside down key lime pies.

If you don’t have ramekins, you can use a muffin pan: Grease 6 muffin pan cups and dust with cocoa powder to prevent the lava cakes from sticking. Your lava cakes will be slightly smaller—you’ll get 6 lava cakes instead of 4. Bake at 425°F (218°C) for 8-10 minutes. Use a spoon to release the cakes from the pan and place each upside down on plates.

I included this recipe over on my Valentine’s Day dessert recipes page, but they’re just as rich and tasty without a holiday on the calendar. 🙂

More Chocolate Peanut Butter Recipes

• Monster Cookies
• Peanut Butter Cupcakes
• No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars
• Peanut Butter Balls (Truffles)
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bars
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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