Peanut Butter Chocolate Molten Lava Cake

1. You don't need to buy top-of-the-range chocolate for this recipe. Any decent brand will work great. It's so rich that you can't tell the difference between an expensive and mid range chocolate.

2. Dusting the dariole moulds with cocoa powder helps to ensure they come out. I use cocoa powder instead of flour so you can't see it (I used flour once and you could see white specks).

3. This recipe makes enough for 5 x 3/4 cup dariole moulds or 4 x 1 cup dariole moulds. Or it makes around 7 using a standard size cupcake/muffin tin.

4. The lava cake will puff up about 30% when it bakes (which always surprises me given that there is no baking powder in the batter). If it puffs up above the rim of the dariole mould then it usually ends up with a sloped surface which means when you turn it out, it doesn't sit straight. The surface also has a tendency to crack (because it is more exposed to the heat).

So as tempting as it is, do not fill the dariole mould more than 3/4 of the way up. Same applies if you are using a ramekin or muffin tin.

5. Baking time for 1 cup dariole mould is 18 minutes and in muffin tins they take 14 minutes. But ovens vary so I recommend checking the cake around 1 to 2 minutes before the prescribed cooking times. Touch the top lightly and if it springs back, it is ready.

6. These are best served warm while the "lava" inside is runny. When they cool, the inside turns fudge-like and doesn't become runny again even if you reheat it. They are still delicious, like a really rich fudgey brownie.

7. To make ahead, make the batter and grease and dust the moulds. Refrigerate the batter until required. Bring to room temperature, then pour into moulds and bake as per recipe directions. If you refrigerate the batter in the moulds, I find that the cake tends to stick more, making them harder to invert onto the plate.

8. Nutrition per serving.