Lemon Molten Cake with Raspberries

For our recent Valentine's dinner I made these cakes for dessert. Similar to chocolate molten cakes, or lava cakes, the cakes have a soft center once baked.  The sweet-tart of the lemons, combined with the sweetness of the raspberries, made for a winning combination. They are easily made ahead of time as the batter can be refrigerated up to 24 hours before baking.  I baked ours as we were doing the dishes (hardly romantic, I know, but we didn't have a bus boy!)

The original recipe calls for purchased lemon curd.  The food snob that I am, I used my homemade curd.

As it was only the two of us for dinner, I halved the recipe and had no problems doing so.

Lemon Molten Cake

1/2 cup butter
1 (4-ounce) white chocolate baking bar, broken into chunks
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup lemon curd
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest

Garnish
Raspberry coulis
Whipped cream
Powdered sugar
Fresh raspberries

Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Grease (I used cooking spray) 8 (6-ounce) custard cups or ramekins. Place onto ungreased 15x10x1-inch baking pan; set aside.

Place butter and baking bar in a bowl.  Microwave 1 minute; stir. Continue microwaving, stirring every 15 seconds for 60-90 seconds or until melted and smooth.

Stir in flour and powdered sugar; mix well. Add eggs, egg yolks, lemon curd and lemon zest; beat with wooden spoon or whisk until blended. Pour evenly into prepared custard cups.

Bake 12-14 minutes or until edges are golden brown and center is puffy and just beginning to set. Let stand 10 minutes. Run tip of knife around edge of custard cup to loosen. Spread or pour some raspberry coulis onto individual dessert plates; invert cakes on top. Shake to loosen. Sprinkle tops with powdered sugar. Serve with whipped cream. Garnish with fresh raspberries.

Raspberry Coulis

1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 (12 ounce) bag frozen raspberries, thawed

Heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until the sugar dissolves completely, about 5 minutes.

Put the raspberries and the sugar syrup in a blender and puree.

Strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.

The sauce keeps well, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.

Proof that both the dessert and wine were great!