Red Velvet Lava Cakes

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Molten lava cakes made easily from red velvet cake mix are perfect for your Valentine’s Day dessert. Recipe makes 4 cakes in ramekins or 6 cakes in a cupcake pan.

Another February, another round of red velvet treats, yeah? Because it just makes sense.

While we don’t typically make any big thing out of Valentine’s Day, since having kids, we are all about the heart shaped sprinkles, fun desserts, red/pink outfits, and red velvet treats.

And while I do pride myself on a fabulous red velvet cupcake recipe as well as a black velvet layer cake recipe (swap the black food coloring for red food coloring and you’ve got yourself red velvet cake), both made from scratch, there is totally a time and place for red velvet cake mix, and that place is here today.

Last year, I published a few red velvet recipes on my blog: two cookies (a red velvet crinkle cookie and a red velvet blossom), red velvet brownies, and red velvet puppy chow.

While both of those cookies and the brownies were made completely from scratch, I used red velvet cake mix to coat that puppy chow, because sometimes, that’s what works best.

See also my red velvet pancakes, red velvet Rice Krispies treats, and red velvet biscotti if you’re looking to use some of your leftover red velvet cake mix.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of lava cakes, I think of being on a Carnival cruise.

I’m positive I have had a lava cake prior to the first cruise we ever took in 2010, but I know that on that cruise is the first time I have ever eaten one lava cake per evening as dessert.

THEY ARE SO GOOD.

A lava cake is simply a small cake, usually individually portioned, that is literally raw in the center, so it comes out like lava when you dig into it with a utensil.

While we are definitely concerned about safely consuming egg, we also have to concern ourselves with the safety of consuming raw flour.

If you recall from my cookie dough brownies, we discussed the importance of heat-treating flour to kill off any bacteria that may reside from the wheat sitting in fields.

We heat treat flour to 165ºF (74ºC), and we can be worry free about eggs at 160ºF (71ºC).

Thus, we bake our red velvet molten lava cake in a ramekin (or cupcake pan!) at a very high heat. This high temperature allows the outside of the lava cake to firm up quickly to create a vessel for the raw batter inside.

But because we’re heating these cakes in such a small portion and at such a high temperature, we can be assured the internal temperature of our cake is at least 165ºF (74ºC) for safety.

Of course, you are welcome to test the internal temperature of your cakes before serving them– I did!

Crazy simple. No red food dye, no vinegar, just straightforward ingredients.

The recipe as written will give you 4 individual cakes made in 6oz ramekins, but if you don’t have ramekins, you’ll get 6 smaller cupcake size lava cakes.

Grease and flour the ramekins or the wells, split the batter evenly, then bake for just 9 minutes (5 minutes for cupcakes).

Once they’re out of the oven, allow them to rest for just a minute before serving.

If you went the cupcake pan route, you can just carefully lift each one out with a spoon, or get a plate or serving platter large enough to flip out all 6 of the red velvet lava cupcakes onto.

And if that all sounds like too much for you, you can always opt for just using the ramekin as a bowl and dig in right away.

There’s no wrong way to do this.

I tested this recipe a few times, so I was able to test lots of toppings for them. Our favorites were sprinkles (always), chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and ice cream.

Other topping suggestions are cream cheese icing, chocolate chips, or a dusting of powdered sugar.

I hope you’ll give these a try for this year’s Valentine’s Day celebration– I can’t wait to see your red velvet molten cakes on Insta as you share them with your Quaranteam!