Liquid Hot (Dessert) Magma

I am super excited because I finally bought a set of ramekins (your 30s are wild, man). I've always wanted a set because single-serving dessert ideas are a necessary evil when your husband travels for work, like, a lot. When he goes, I'm usually in need of cake or pie to cope. But when my eyes and my stomach see cake, it's viewed as a hearty challenge to see how big of a slice I can eat in one sitting. Enter the ramekin, and I can eat like an actual 31 year old and instead of a 13 year old. Adulting is mostly about learning portion control and how to do your taxes, and I kind of suck at both. What I lack in typical adult capabilities, I make up for in the fact that I clean a mean house and can bake my way out of most adult situations. Need to make a phone call? Sorry, I've got cookies in the oven. Have to answer the front door? Nope, covered in cake batter. I'm starting to realize it might not be adulting that I'm not good at but simply socializing...it's a good thing I can cram my mouth full of cake and not have to talk about this any further. Thanks, ramekins! You made my dreams come true (both the antisocial and pro-dessert ones) with the amazing capability to bake tiny, delicious lava cakes in you:

Liquid hot dessert magma: peanut butter (left) and dulce de leche (right) editions.

Did I also mention owning ramekins makes having several different flavors of cake possible in one week? The versatility is thrilling! I would've been just as jazzed about this at age 18 as I am ate age 31 because I simply appreciate being able to eat as many different cakes as possible in an average week. Variety is the spice of life (says the woman who plans out outfits in advance and keeps a written weekly planner). But the bottom line is this: chocolate peanut butter lava cakes and dark chocolate dulce de leche lava cakes will change your life. But not in the, "They've made my pants fit tighter" manner, because these are guilt free even with ice cream on top! The peanut butter lava cakes are only 206 calories a serving (add a scoop of peanut butter Halo Top for 80 calories) and the dulce de leche lava cakes are only 171 calories a serving (add a scoop of sea salt caramel Halo Top for 80 calories). Even if you don't like peanut butter or caramel (we can't be friends, but...), you can fill your cake with a traditional fudge or try something fun like a raspberry coulis. Whatever your poison, the base chocolate cake recipe is to die for. It is so decadent and delicious you'd never know it was only going to set you back as far as a salad calorie-wise. Perhaps the best thing about these cakes (aside from being able to top them with a ludicrous amount of ice cream with no guilt) is that the lava cake should be eaten fresh, piping hot from the oven. That's right, NO WAITING TIME! My impatient little heart could burst (it would burst caramel and peanut butter, at this point). These cakes come together and get inhaled in under 30 minutes, so if I haven't sold you on all the benefits by now, you probably don't like dessert, so I'm not sure what you're even doing here.

Maybe you just enjoy a cleverly written blog. Good for you.

 I made these cakes in a medium bowl, starting with my dry ingredients. This makes two cakes (my ramekins are 7 ounces each). You'll need:

• 1/4 cup + 1 TBS All Purpose flour
• 1/4 cup Swerve granular
• 2 TBS cocoa powder (if you want a dark chocolate cake, use 1 1/2 TBS regular cocoa powder and 1/2 TBS dark cocoa powder)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• Dash of salt

Mix these together in a bowl and preheat your oven to 425, then grab the wet ingredients.

Where would I be without unsweetened applesauce...

In the same bowl as your dry ingredients, add:

• 1/4 cup + 2 TBS skim milk
• 2 TBS unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar (works with the baking soda to puff up your lava cakes)

Mix together until your batter is nice and smooth. Prepare your ramekins with cooking spray and dust with more cocoa powder. Pour 1/4 of the batter into one ramekin, 1/4 of the batter into another ramekin, and then find your center of choice (fudge, peanut butter, dulce de leche, fruit filling, etc.).

Place 1 TBS of your preferred yummy center into each ramekin. Pictured here is creamy Jif--accept no peanut butter substitutes. Jif will make magic happen.

Then take 1/4 of the cake batter and drop on top of your filling. Repeat with the other cake. Your filling might stick out a bit like the world's strangest belly button (pictured above, if you tilt your head..sorry), but it will melt down as your cake bakes, so don't worry.

Things turned out juuuust fine in the end.

 Place your ramekins on a baking sheet and bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes. You want the sides completely cooked, but the top will still be a little underdone. My oven cooks hot, and my cakes were ready at 13 minutes.

Tops not totally set, but the sides are--this is what you're looking for.

Give the cakes just a minute or two so that the ramekins don't burn off your fingertips when you handle them. This will be one of the longest minutes of your life.

Kinda looks like the Pizza Hut logo.

 I'd still recommend using oven mitts unless you're looking to remove your finger prints so you can rob a candy store (or a bank if you're an adult). Run a dull knife around the edges of your cake to completely loosen the sides from the ramekin. Place a serving plate on top of your ramekin, and then invert:

And pray you've used enough Pam.

 Tap the ramekin a few times until you feel the cake release. My peanut butter cakes came out easier than the dulce de leche ones because the caramel is so deliciously sticky that it didn't want to let go of the ramekin where it had leaked out a bit. Things should still come out nicely with just a small indent in the bottom/top of the cake where your filling is:

So chocolatey.

Don't worry about that tiny imperfection though. That's what the ice cream is for:

Hellllooooo, gorgeous!

 You could call it a day and devour here, but I went for broke and added chocolate sauce on top of my peanut butter lava cake.

Yep, worth it.

 With my other cake, I did a small dissection/science experiment for photo purposes. I had to get a photo of that peanut butter ooze:

Yep, that's the stuff.

 What? My husband is gone. Maybe I wanted to eat both cakes in one sitting since I didn't have to share with anyone. The dogs can't have chocolate! In all honesty, I saved this one for the next day. I swear. With my dark chocolate dulce de leche cakes, I remembered to take a photo of the caramel oozing across the plate before topping with ice cream and scarfing down in under 15 seconds.

Dulce de leche is arguably the sexiest of all dessert toppings. Just check that lava flow!

Having to pick a favorite lava cake flavor is like having to pick your favorite child...you all secretly have one but don't want to say which. Look, they're both absolutely amazing depending on your flavor palette. As a Texan obsessed with dulce de leche, the dark chocolate lava cake with caramel-y center was hands down my favorite. It was so delicious I felt like there was no way in hell it was actually under 200 calories, and I even checked my math five times to be sure. It is, and dear sweet baby Jesus is it good. With my leftover lava cake, I left it in the ramekin topped with foil and saved for the next day. If you have leftover lava cakes, reheat in the microwave for 45 seconds (without the foil, obviously, unless you like blowing up your microwave). This gets the center nice and melty again. Whatever you do, whichever amazing flavor you prefer, do not forget the ice cream! Lava cakes are like the world's most delicious edible ice cream bowl.

The cake soaks up the melty ice cream, keeping you from becoming a giant sticky mess.

I mean, check that peanut butter ice cream melt into the chocolate cake into the melty peanut butter center. Meltception! I think I need to go make one of these right now...that photo is making my tongue feel things. I'm a huge fan of Halo Top ice cream because it's on the healthyish side but still tastes so creamy. Let it sit out to soften for 30-45 minutes to reach maximum flavor potential. I'm still really patting myself on the back for coming up with a single serving dessert featuring cake, melty, gooey center, and ice cream for fewer calories than a handful of potato chips but still tasting like it should be at least 1500 calories (looking at you, Chili's molten lava cake). Where there's a gluttonous will combined with bikini season, there is most definitely a way. Bottom line is it won't give your bottom anymore lines, so make the cake, devour the cake, and remind yourself that every once in a while, being an adult is actually pretty damn fun. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Fun because you can totally eat this for breakfast if you want to. Adulting!