When one of my coworkers sent me to her Pinterest board for birthday treat inspiration, she mentioned that I’d quickly notice a theme – “chocolate, peanut butter, and goo” – I laughed and assumed she was joking, but after looking through her pins, I found inspiration for a birthday treat that would tick all of those boxes – Crockpot Lava Cake!
This was my first foray into the slow cooker cake world, and I was disappointed to find that most people were using cake mixes. I definitely see the appeal (dump it in and be done!), but since I don’t keep cake mix on hand I would need to make a special trip to the store, and then it’s not saving me any time at all.
After digging through what felt like hundreds of recipes, I was able to find a lone scratch recipe from Southern Living magazine. I was pretty nervous about it, especially with a birthday deadline looming, but after a few hours I peeked under the lid, and sure enough, it was cake-like! When I brought it in to work I served it with vanilla ice cream, and it was an instant hit. 🙂
I’m thinking the next time I make this it will be for a summer barbecue – it seems perfect, not only do you not need to babysit it, but it won’t heat up the house!
- 1/3 cup salted butter
- 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/3 cup half and half
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/4 cup peanut butter chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 1/2 cups boiling water
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Line a slow cooker with parchment or grease well. Melt butter and stir in chocolate chips until melted. Combine melted chocolate and the rest of the Cake Batter ingredients in a large bowl, and stir until just combined, then pour into the prepared slow cooker. Mix together Liquid Layer ingredients, then pour over batter layer but do not mix together.
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Cover and cook on high until set, about 2 hours.
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Allow to cool slightly before serving. Top with whipped cream or ice cream.
Adapted from Southern Living Magazine
