Keto Lava Cake Gluten-free – 1.2g net carbs!
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 09/11/2019 - Last updated on 05/19/2023
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Keto lava cakes are quick keto desserts baked in single-serve ramekins with a molten chocolate center.
Plus, they are gluten-free lava cake, paleo-friendly, and contain only 1.2 grams of net carbs per serving.
What Is A Chocolate Lava Cake?
Chocolate lava cakes also known as molten cakes are uncooked single-serve chocolate cakes resulting in a liquid chocolate center.
It is a delicious easy dessert to serve lukewarm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.
How To Make This Keto Lava Cake
Keto lava cake is the perfect quick keto dessert to serve to your family and friends. Whether you’re on a keto diet or not everyone will love those molten cakes with a delicious liquid chocolate center.
Ingredients
All you need to make these simple keto desserts are a few ingredients:
- Sugar-free chocolate – I love to use sugar-free dark chocolate sweetened with stevia. If you can’t find this where you live, you can use 99% dark chocolate or 85% dark chocolate. This last option is sweeter and contains slightly more sugar and carbs er serve but is still keto-friendly in a small amount. you can also make your own sugar-free chocolate chips.
- Sugar-free crystal sweetener – erythritol, Monk fruit stevia blend, or xylitol. Read my review of keto-friendly sweeteners to learn some more.
- Butter or dairy-free butter. Butter is always keto-friendly.
- Eggs – regular size
- Almond flour – I used fine almond flour, but an almond meal will work as well. Learn how to pick your keto flours.
- Ground espresso – this is optional but I love the flavor of this in my chocolate lava cake.
- Vanilla extract or vanilla essence.
Getting The Texture Right
There are many ways to enjoy these low-carb lava cakes. In fact, you can really play with the texture by adjusting the baking time of your recipe.
Let’s see the different baking time options to choose from to achieve your favorite lava cake texture.
Runny lava cake
For those who love a liquid runny chocolate lava cake. This option requires less baking, about 9 minutes.
You want the top of the cake to be set but jiggly and soft to keep a liquid center. I recommend serving this recipe into the ramekin, don’t flip it over a plate or the cake is very fragile and may break.
Molten lava cake
This one is less runny than the previous one. You need to bake the lava cakes for about 10 minutes, until the borders and top of the cake are set, crackle less jiggly.
Gooey lava cake
This texture is close to a moist chocolate cake, the center is not liquid but very moist and it makes this easier to serve on a plate. You need to bake the lava cakes between 11-12 minutes to reach this texture.
Making The Best Keto Lava Cakes
As I mentioned, what makes a lava cake perfect is the liquid chocolate center. In order to achieve that, you must undercook the cake. My tips are:
- Ramekin size – make sure all your ramekins have the same size. I recommend 4-oz ramekins for the recipe. If the ramekins are wider, you will get a thinner layer of batter in each ramekin, and the cakes will cook faster.
- Filling – fill each ramekin with the same amount of batter. You bake the lava cake all at once. If one has less batter, it will cook faster.
- Check the baking process – for a ramekin of my size. It should take 10 to 12 minutes to achieve the perfect liquid center. I recommend checking the lava cake after 10 minutes. It is ready when the center jiggles, but the top is set, a crust has formed.
Storage Instructions
This recipe serves 4 keto lava cakes, so you probably wonder what to do if you want only one lava cake? There are 2 options:
- Store in the fridge the uncooked lava cake – and bake the next day. It will be a bit longer to bake as it is straight out of the fridge.
- Bake longer to set the center and freeze – it will make a delicious chocolate cake that you can freeze or store for 3 days at room temperature.
More Quick Keto Desserts
If you love simple keto dessert recipes, I have got plenty of others to try. You may also love:
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Keto Lava Cake
Ingredients
- 3 ounces 99% Dark Chocolate or sugar-free chocolate chips or any chocolate >85% cocoa
- 3 ounces Unsalted Butter cubed, out of the fridge for 1 hour, or dairy-free butter
- 3 regular Eggs
- ⅓ cup Granulated Sweetener or Monk fruit or xylitol (only 1/4 cup if stevia sweetened chocolate used!)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Ground Espresso
- 3 tablespoons Almond Flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease 4 little ramekins (I used 4 oz ramekins) with a bit of butter. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, place cubed butter and 99% dark chocolate (or any dark chocolate with more than 85%). Melt it on low heat, stirring all the time to prevent the chocolate from burning. You can also melt the chocolate "au bain marie", this method consists of placing the saucepan over a bowl of boiling water to melt it gently. When the chocolate and butter are melted, remove the saucepan from the heat and set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, using an electric whisk, whisk the eggs and sugar-free crystal sweetener on high speed for 1 minute until foamy, fluffy, and lighter in color. Note: use 1/3 cup sweetener if your chocolate is unsweetened or 99%, otherwise if you are using stevia-sweetened chocolate or 85% cocoa chocolate, use only 1/4 cup sugar-free crystal sweetener.
- Stir in (don't whisk!) the vanilla, ground espresso, and almond flour.
- Gently pour the melted chocolate into the previous egg mixture, stirring at the same time to form the cake batter. Make sure the melted chocolate is not burning hot or it 'cooks' the eggs but if you follow the low-heat technique above that will not be a problem.
- Fill the 4 ramekins evenly to make sure they bake at the same speed.
- Place the ramekin onto a baking tray and bring the tray into the oven.
- Bake for 9-12 minutes. The trick to creating a runny lava center is to undercook the cake. After 9 minutes, you should have a runny lava cake, after 10 minutes a molten lava cake, and after 12 minutes a gooey chocolate cake. In any case, you can eat the cake, but for a lava center, you must take it off the oven when the center of the cake jiggle and the border are slightly set. Practice to learn how long you need to bake your lava cake to reach your favorite texture.
- Cool 2-3 minutes in the ramekin before serving – note that the cake keeps baking slightly when it cools down as the ramekin is hot. That is why you must remove the lava cake from the oven when the center jiggles to enjoy a runny lava cake.
- Eat directly in the ramekin with a scoop of sugar-free vanilla ice cream on the side or upside down on a plate (careful the cake may break if its center is very runny!)
Notes
Tools
Getting Started What Is Keto? Macro Calculator Sweetener Converter Intermittent Fasting Keto Fruits Keto Vegetables Keto Flours Fighting Keto Flu Healthy SweetenersWant My Kitchen Equipment?
Nutrition
About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook, and founder of Sweet As Honey.
I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.
I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet
Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!
All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.
Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.
I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!
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Cakes & CupcakesDisclaimer
The recipes, instructions, and articles on this website should not be taken or used as medical advice. You must consult with your doctor before starting on a keto or low-carb diet. The nutritional data provided on Sweetashoney is to be used as indicative only.
The nutrition data is calculated using WP Recipe Maker. Net Carbs is calculated by removing the fiber and some sweeteners from the total Carbohydrates. As an example, a recipe with 10 grams of Carbs per 100 grams that contains 3 grams of erythritol and 5 grams of fiber will have a net carbs content of 2 grams. Some sweeteners are excluded because they are not metabolized.
You should always calculate the nutritional data yourself instead of relying on Sweetashoney's data. Sweetashoney and its recipes and articles are not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose, or treat any disease. Sweetashoney cannot be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or advice found on the Website.
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Do you know if this would work with regular sugar if not on a keto diet?
Sure it will ! Enjoy
OMG, this cake just melted on my tongue! Very, very tasty and easy to make! Perfect no-guilt dessert!
I was wondering if I could substitute the chocolate with coca and cocoa butter.
I am not sure it will work here I am sorry
OMG, if I knew it was this easy to make melt in the middle cake I would’ve made it ages ago. I thought that I have to give this up since i’ve started keto but boy this is yummy.
I’m not sure what I did wrong. I followed the recipe exactly and for some reason the cake basically separated in the oven and I was left with gooey lava cake on top and gelatinous almond mound on the bottom. Do you know what I could have done wrong?
Thanks!
I have absolutely no idea what could make this to happen. Did you preheat oven before bringing the cake in?
Hola! Un placer me encantan tus recetas, pero en mi país consigo en chocolate oscuro de 70% se le agrega la misma cantidad?
I made this recipe twice this week because it was such a hit with all my family and friends… Thank you Carine for the amazing recipes that make this lifestyle much more enjoyable
Any chocolate will work in this recipe but 705 chocolate is high in sugar I recommend 85% to keep the recipe keto friendly, Enjoy the recipes on the blog, XOXO Carine
Hi, I love this recipe! Question regarding the flour? Is it only 3 tablespoons of superfine almond flour? I added extra since it was thin and not like your video. Thank you for the recipes!????
Yes the recipe is correct you barely need flour in a lava cake or it gets too ‘cakey’. The video make looks different but I can assure you there is only that amount of flour. Enjoy ! XOXO Carine
These were really good!!! I tried them with peanut butter in the middle and they turned out really delicious! What I liked about it is that it was so rich from the dark chocolate and the peanut butter helped balance out the sweetness. It was just perfect ????❤️
What a great idea! Nothing can beat chocolate and peanut butter. Thanks for sharing your ideas with me, XOXO Carine
Could you cook this in the microwave?
I wouldn’t cook lava cake in the microwave, it will dry out significantly. But I didn’t try so let me know how it goes if you do. Otherwise try my keto chocolate mug cake recipe if you want a delicious microwave chocolate cake in 90 seconds. Enjoy the recipes on the blog, XOXO Carine
Can you use splenda as a sweetner?
I don’t recommend splenda as it is an artificial sweetner not safe for keto diet. Plus, it won’t add texture to the cake and the recipe won’t work as well. Also note that you would need very few splenda to replace the sugar free crystal Monk fruit in a recipe. ENJOY ! XOXO Carine
can you substitute “flaz egg” for the egg?
I didn’t try the recipe egg free and I won’t recommend flax egg here. Enjoy the recipe on the blog, XOXO Carine.
Hi, just letting you know that 3oz is 85g, not 170g 🙂 I made these last night and they were AMAZING!!!
I am happy you enoyed my recipe ! I confirm that 3 oz (ounces) are 85 grams based on google converter. Thanks for spotting my mistake 🙂 I do all my recipes in grams and cups and use google to provide the US measurement and it seems right for now on.
Followed recipe as written. 95% Lindt Dark chocolate & classic Lankanto granulated sweetener. 350 degrees for 14 minutes in counter top convection oven gave a gooey center. Add the espresso! Can’t taste coffee, makes it rot her in flavor. So good!
I am so happy you found my blog and that you enjoy my keto baking recipes ! I can’t wait to see what you re making next. XOXO Carine.