Best Ever Vegan Lava Cakes (Gluten Free!)
These amazing molten vegan lava cakes are full of rich and decadent gooey chocolate, served warm and taste like a brownie soufflé in cake form! Super easy, undetectably eggless, dairy free, and gluten free, and topped with vegan ice cream for the ultimate chocolate molten lava cake recipe for all eaters, vegan or not!
What are molten lava cakes?
Molten lava cakes are the ultimate decadent chocolate dessert, and these vegan lava cakes taste just like the classic. A lava cake is almost like an undercooked cake- but with the best result. It’s a balance between cake and soufflé, and filled with chocolate so that when you break into the middle of your lava cake, out pours a rush of molten chocolate.
These vegan lava cakes are undetectably eggless, dairy free, and gluten free. Traditionally, lava cakes are made with eggs, regular butter, and flour. You can still make these vegan lava cakes with regular flour, but to make these lava cakes super allergy friendly, we’re making a few ingredient swaps while still maintaining that classic lava cake taste AND texture.
What’s more, making vegan lava cakes is actually easier than making traditional lava cakes. These chocolate molten lava cakes are quick and easy to make, which means they’re the perfect dessert for dinner parties, Valentine’s Day, or a fun date night in!
Ingredients:
As we mentioned above, we’re using super simple ingredients that happen to be not only vegan and gluten free, but naturally nut free and soy free as well. Here’s what you need:
- Oat flour: You can use store bought or homemade. If you’re truly gluten free, make sure you’re using certified gluten free oat flour. I give other flour recommendations below.
- Vegan butter: I used Miyoko’s vegan butter here. However, for nut-free, I recommend Flora Plant Butter. Earth Balance is also a good option. You can also just use coconut oil!
- Chocolate: I recommend using a high quality dark chocolate. Valrhona has amazing vegan chocolates, as well as Pascha Chocolate (my all time favorite chocolate company). For less sugar, I recommend Pascha Organics’ stevia sweetened chocolate. All of their chocolate is always vegan so rest assured, you’re choosing a great Fair Trade high quality chocolate!
- Sugar: I have used both coconut sugar and granulated sugar in this recipe, and either work. For a vegan granulated sugar, ensure that your sugar is organic. Organic granulated sugar is vegan. I recommend Florida Crystals if it’s available to you.
- Applesauce: This replaces the eggs found in traditional molten chocolate lava cakes!
Do I need any special equipment for this recipe?
For these vegan lava cakes, you really don’t need much. A medium microwave safe bowl and a hand whisk or a hand mixer will do.
In terms of baking the cakes, molten lava cakes are traditionally baked in ramekins. However, you can also use a large 6-cup muffin tin, like I did. This recipe makes 3 vegan lava cakes, so you’ll use 3 ramekins.
How to make vegan lava cakes (overview)
For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.
Here’s how quick and easy these vegan lava cakes are to make:
- Melt the chocolate and butter.
In a microwave safe bowl, heat the vegan butter until hot. Then add in the chocolate chips (you’ll notice in the ingredients section, I’ve listed another 1/2 cup of chocolate- that will be for the filling and is not to be used in this part!) and stir until melted.
- Add in the remaining wet ingredients.
Stir in the applesauce and granulated sugar to the melted chocolate and whisk vigorously.
- Next stir in the dry ingredients.
Traditionally, a chocolate lava cake recipe does not contain any leavening agents. However, I’ve found with oat flour, these vegan gluten free lava cakes best perform with a touch of baking powder. Add in both the oat flour and baking powder here, and stir to combine.
- Fill your ramekins.
Fill each ramekin about 2/3 of the way full. Add in the reserved chocolate to the middle of each, and top with the remaining batter.
- Bake the chocolate lava cakes.
Bake at 425F for about 18 minutes. You’ll know they’re done when the tops of the lava cakes are just set and don’t appear to be “wet” anymore.
- Allow the lava cakes to cool.
This is so crucial. Your vegan lava cakes will be super delicate when they first come out of the oven. Allow them to rest in their ramekins for at least 10 minutes. Then take a serrated knife and run the knife along the edges of the ramekins to loosen the cakes from the edges.
- Plate and serve the lava cakes.
Carefully flip each lava cake onto a serving plate (using oven mitts, as the ramekins will still be hot!). Top with vegan ice cream or vegan whipped cream, and enjoy!
Can I prepare this vegan lava cake recipe ahead of time?
Molten lava cakes, vegan and traditional, are best prepared right before serving, much like a chocolate soufflé. So unfortunately, I do not recommend prepping these cakes ahead of time. You’ll want the middles to be very warm and molten (hence the name!).
Can I use an alternative flour?
If you don’t want to use oat flour, I have a few different options for you! You can use all purpose flour if you aren’t gluten free and don’t need these lava cakes to be gluten free as well. Alternatively, if you are gluten free but prefer not to use oat flour, you may use cassava flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour.
Unfortunately, this recipe will not work with almond flour nor coconut flour.
How to serve vegan lava cakes
I recommend serving these amazing vegan molten lava cakes topped with vegan vanilla ice cream. You can also use store bought or homemade vegan coconut whipped cream, and top with fresh berries or shaved chocolate!
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
PrintBest Ever Vegan Lava Cakes
Description
These amazing molten vegan lava cakes are full of rich and decadent gooey chocolate, served warm and taste like a brownie soufflé in cake form! Super easy, undetectably eggless, dairy free, and gluten free, and topped with vegan ice cream for the ultimate chocolate molten lava cake recipe for all eaters, vegan or not!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan butter or coconut oil, separated
- 2/3 cup (120 g) vegan chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup 125 g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated or coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup (68 g) oat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
- Toppings: vegan ice cream, vegan coconut whipped cream, chocolate shavings, fresh berries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425F and prepare your ramekins with 1 tbsp melted vegan butter.
- In a medium microwave safe bowl, heat the vegan butter or coconut oil until melted and hot. Add in the chocolate chips and stir until melted. Add in the applesauce and sugar, and whisk together vigorously.
- Add in the oat flour and baking powder, and mix until there are no more clumps.
- Fill the ramekins 3/4 of the way full with batter. Add 1 heaping tbsp of chocolate chips into the middle of each bowl.
- Add the remaining batter on top, and place the ramekins onto a baking sheet and into the oven to bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the middle just begins to set.
- Remove from the oven and let cool and set for 10 minutes.
- Use a knife to run along the edges of the cake (use oven mitts if the ramekins are hot) and flip over gently onto serving plates.
- Top with vegan coconut whipped cream or vegan vanilla ice cream (I used Forager Project here). Enjoy!
Notes
Flour: If you’re not strictly gluten free, you can swap in all purpose flour. If you’re gluten free, please ensure that your oat flour is certified gluten free.
Lower sugar: Swap out regular vegan chocolate chips for stevia sweetened or 100% cocoa vegan chocolate chips.
Nut Free: Make sure that the vegan butter you use does not contain any nuts.
This was incredible! So delicious! Mine was probably too runny but I think it was because I used muffin wrappers and a silicone muffin pan. But it was incredible even like that. The flavor of the batter is so perfect that I want to try to figure out how to use just the batter part to make brownies. If you have any suggestions for making sure it sets up properly when I try to do that I would love to hear them. Thanks so much for this. I will make it over and over.
Oh I’m so happy to hear that you loved them!! For the setting though, I would recommend using a metal cupcake tin or ramekins- silicone doesn’t give as even as a bake as metal or glass does interestingly enough!
I’ve made this twice and it is amazing! I love the simplicity of ingredients, my 3 year old made with me. Since I have a Gluten intolerance I made my own oat flour by taking gf oatmeal in food processor. I had a gathering at my house and it was a hit!
So happy to hear it!! Thank you for the review, and enjoy! 🙂
These look so good! I am going to try to make them tonight but curious how many this recipe makes? I couldn’t find that info but maybe I’m just missing it. 🙂
Also, do these have to be eaten warm or are they still good if you let them cool / put them in the fridge for later in the week? Or is there a good way to warm them up?
Thank you!!
Hi Madeline!! Oh yes! They make 2 large lava cakes if you use a large muffin tin or 3-4 small ones (depending on how big your ramekin is! Some ramekins are very small!). They’re usually enjoyed warm, but you can definitely let them cool a bit! Just make sure you heat them up in the oven (300F for 3-5 minutes will be good!) or you can microwave too, but microwaving might overcook them- the oven is the best option!
I would love to try this but just wondering if any substitute for applesauce.
can I use banana or any other ingredient ?
Yes! You can use dairy free yogurt 🙂 That’s I use all the time!
This was delicious! I only had 1 1/2 sticks of butter so I added 1/2 of coconut oil. It was delicious like I already mentioned but I literally looked like it was frying while it baking and turned out very crumbly looking and oily. We still ate it 😬 😋 I want to try again soon and hopefully it turns out just like the picture. Do you think it was because I used both oil and butter that caused them to fry? I will make sure I have enough butter next time.
I should have mentioned in my first comment that I doubled the recipe which is why I used more butter.
Hi CJ! Aw I’m so glad you liked them! I’m wondering what vegan butter you used? That might have been hard for the coconut oil to combine with and caused the frying? If it was Earth Balance, I could see that happening, but Miyoko’s does have coconut oil in it so it should have been fine!
Thank you so much for your quick response! I did use earth balance. My daughter has a nut allergy so we can’t use miyokos. I’ll see if I can find the other nut free butter you posted. My kiddos and hubby are definitely looking forward to having it again even if it turns out the same 😆
Thank you again!
Oh you might like the Violife vegan butter then or the Miyoko’s oat milk butter! I personally like the taste of those two better than the Earth balance- sometimes EB is a bit too greasy! But can’t wait to hear how they come! 🙂