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This Chocolate Lava Cake is absolutely fabulous. It’s served warm, has a moist top layer, and an ooey-gooey bottom that is rich, smooth and full of chocolate goodness. Add a cool scoop of ice cream and you will be in heaven, my friends. Not only is this cake delectable, but you can put it together in just about 15 minutes. Then it cooks in the crock pot for 2 1/2 hours. It’s great for summer gatherings when you don’t want to heat up your oven. Make it for Sunday dinner, make it for a friend, make it for your 4th of July celebration!
Let me show you how to make it happen. 🙂
1. Grab a 3-4 quart crock pot and line it with parchment paper. Spray the inside of the paper with cooking spray. The parchment paper helps the cake cook without burning along the edges. You can make it without the paper, just be sure to watch it closely.
2. Find yourself a nice chocolate cake mix and pour it into your stand mixer or medium-sized mixing bowl.
3. Add 1 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup oil and 3 eggs. Beat on low-speed for 1 minutes. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until the batter in nice and glossy.
4. Pour the batter into the lined crock pot.
5. Pour one small box of chocolate pudding into your stand mixer or medium-sized mixing bowl. Add 2 cups cold milk and beat it until the pudding thickens. Should take about 3-4 minutes.
6. Pour the pudding over the top of the cake batter. Don’t stir it. Really, cross my heart and hope to die. It will cook up best if you leave the layers be.
7. Grab a bag of milk chocolate chips and pour the pretty little things all over the top of the pudding. Again, please do not stir it.
8. Cover the crock and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours, or until the top of the cake is set. ***NOTE: Some readers have had a hard time getting this cake to cook in the 2 1/2 hour allotted cooking time. Every crock pot cooks a little differently. You may want to leave yourself 3-3 1/2 hours cooking time. If your cake isn’t cooking quickly enough, you could also turn the crock pot setting to high for the last 15 minutes or so. This recipe takes a little experimenting with, depending on how fast your crock pot cooks.***
Like this. 🙂
The bottom layer of the cake will be all gooey and soft. Yum.
Double yum.
9. Place some on a plate…
and add a cool scoop of ice cream or whipped cream right on top.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- 1 1/4 C milk
- 1/2 C vegetable or canola oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 (3.9 ounce) instant chocolate pudding
- 2 C milk (I used 1 %)
- 1 (12 ounce) bag milk chocolate chips
- parchment paper
Instructions
1. Grab a 3-4 quart crock pot and line it with parchment paper. Spray the inside of the paper with cooking spray. The parchment paper helps the cake cook without burning along the edges. You can make it without the paper, just be sure to watch it closely.
2. Find yourself a nice chocolate cake mix and pour it into your stand mixer or medium-sized mixing bowl.
3. Add 1 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup oil and 3 eggs. Beat on low-speed for 1 minutes. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until the batter in nice and glossy.
4. Pour the batter into the lined crock pot.
5. Pour one small box of chocolate pudding into your stand mixer or medium-sized mixing bowl. Add 2 cups cold milk and beat it until the pudding thickens. Should take about 3-4 minutes.
6. Pour the pudding over the top of the cake batter. Don't stir it. Really, cross my heart and hope to die. It will cook up best if you leave the layers be.
7. Grab a bag of milk chocolate chips and pour the pretty little things all over the top of the pudding. Again, please do not stir it.
8. Cover the crock and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours, or until the top of the cake is set. ***NOTE: Some readers have had a hard time getting this cake to cook in the 2 1/2 hour allotted cooking time. Every crock pot cooks a little differently. You may want to leave yourself 3-3 1/2 hours cooking time. If your cake isn't cooking quickly enough, you could also turn the crock pot setting to high for the last 15 minutes or so. This recipe takes a little experimenting with, depending on how fast your crock pot cooks.***
The bottom layer of the cake will be all gooey and soft. Yum.
9. Place some on a plate and add a cool scoop of ice cream or whipped cream right on top.
Enjoy!
Notes
***NOTE: Some readers have had a hard time getting this cake to cook in the 2 1/2 hour allotted cooking time. Every crock pot cooks a little differently. You may want to leave yourself 3-3 1/2 hours cooking time. If your cake isn't cooking quickly enough, you could also turn the crock pot setting to high for the last 15 minutes or so. This recipe takes a little experimenting with, depending on how fast your crock pot cooks.***
Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens
Is there anyway to make a copy of this recipe? I want to make it but don’t want to copy it on my printer due to all the wasted ink as well as all the other colored photos. Thanks. I’m a little worried the cake won’t cook but I think most people don’t know this is a runny type of cake, not one that should be hard, like a regular baked cake. Am I right?
Susan,
If you look under the title and before the list of ingredients, you will see the words “PRINT RECIPE”. Click on it and it will take you to a printable page.
~Jamie
This looks amazing! I was wondering if you could use chocolate pie filling pudding instead of instant pudding?
This looks amazing!! We have dairy sensitivities in our house, any thoughts on how to make it dairy free? Do you think almond milk would yield the same results?
I made this for a crowd. Everyone loved it. Be careful not to OVERCOOK. After the cook time, make sure you lower the crockpot to low or turn off and turn back on to low about 30 min. before serving. I served with a big scoop of Vanilla Icecream. I wish I had some now! It was so easy and soooooooo good!
The measurments and instructions on my box of cake mix and the ones in your recipe are quite different. Which do I follow?
I have a 6 qt oval crockpot. Do you think I can double the recipe?
We make a cake very similar to this- but we use coffee icecream on top. It’s to die for!! 🙂
How do you think this would do with brownie mix instead? What would you do to change the recipe?
Ali,
A brownie mix would be a bit too thick. I would stick with a cake mix. Best of luck!
~Jamie
can you double the recipe?
Vivian,
I haven’t ever tried doubling this recipe, but I think you would have trouble with it not baking correctly if you did. It may burn around the edges before the middle has a chance to cook. Best of luck to you!
~Jamie