recipe: chocolate sea salt molten cakes

I am obsessed with these cakes.

In fact, when I posted a preview picture to Twitter yesterday, my hashtag was #thebestthingihaveevermade.

And I wasn't even exaggerating. Not one bit.

Three of our good friends have birthdays really close to each other (including my fabulous sometimes-photographer, Kristen), and they always throw a joint party, right after the holidays in January. I volunteered to bring some goodies, so I had to come up with something seriously delicious.

And.... yowza. I've solidly decided to cover every dessert I make from now on with a light dusting of sea salt. Something about that little bit of saltiness is so incredibly delicious in a dessert, and pair it with a super-rich, melted chocolate layer, and you've just created something that borders on perfection. I was happy that I'd already volunteered these for the party, because I would have totally blown that New Year's resolution of not eating entire batches of dessert. Instead, I ate a very reasonable... um... three.

And they were delicious.

Chocolate Sea Salt Molten Cakes

INGREDIENTS

9 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

6 tbsp butter, softened

3 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp Kahlua

1/8 tsp sea salt, plus additional for the tops of the cakes

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter two six-muffin tins, and dust the insides with sugar.

On a double-boiler, melt chocolate until smooth, stirring to ensure everything melts. Set aside to cool.

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla, salt, and Kahlua. Add the eggs, one at a time, until all of them are incorporated. Beat in the chocolate and flour and pour the batter into the muffin tins, about 3/4 full. Sprinkle sea salt over the tops of the muffins. Bake for 9-10 minutes, allow to cool, and turn cakes out onto serving plates. Serve.

Makes twelve mini cakes.