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This Slow Cooker Chocolate Lava Cake is a game-changer: Warm, gooey chocolate cake (made from scratch!) nestled in a river of thick fudge sauce. Make this easy, luscious dessert right in your crockpot. Top with ice cream, whipped cream, or both for an extra special treat.
Meggan’s notes
Many Lava Cakes start with a cake mix and a box of pudding, but I don’t usually keep those around much. As a classically-trained chef with plenty of pastry experience, I wasn’t settling for anything less than a from-scratch chocolate lava cake.
I also thought the idea of doing it in a slow cooker was so great! Fun, unique, interesting, and EASY. So fire up your crockpot and try out this self-saucing chocolate cake. It’s amazing!
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Cocoa powder: Look for the unsweetened baking cocoa powder, not the mix for making hot chocolate. Both natural and Dutch-process cocoa powder will work in this recipe.
Step-by-step instructions
To make the cake batter:
- Coat a slow cooker with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. In a second bowl, whisk together the milk, melted butter, and vanilla.
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredient in to the well and whisk until smooth.
- Pour into the bottom of a slow cooker.
To make the topping:
- Whisk together the sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder until evenly combined. Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the slow cooker.
- Pour the hot water over the top of the batter and topping. Do not stir.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours or LOW for 5 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in to the middle of the cake comes out clean with a few crumbs attached.
- Serve with ice cream or whipped cream, spooning the chocolate sauce from the bottom of the slow cooker over the top. Garnish with maraschino cherries if desired.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes 1 gooey, delicious Chocolate Lava Cake, enough for 8 generous servings.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.
- Keep it warm: If your crockpot switches to “warm” after it’s done cooking, you can leave it in the crockpot on the “warm” setting for at least 2-3 hours without changing the cake. For example, I cooked the cake on LOW for 5 hours, then left it in the crockpot for 2 more hours on the “warm” setting, and it was still perfect.
- Double recipe: Double the ingredients and it will still fit in a 6-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 to 5 hours or LOW for 4 to 6 hours (or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean with a few crumbs attached.)
- Half recipe: Half the ingredients fit nicely in a 2-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH for 2 hours or LOW for 3 to 4 hours (or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean with a few crumbs attached.) A perfect dessert for your romantic Valentine’s Day meal.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, that’s not a good idea. At the request of a reader, I tried it out. The “sugar topping” is actually the underlying fudge layer. If you make just the cake, it is not sweet enough, the chocolate flavor is lacking, the whole cake is dry, and it might even burn in the bottom of your slow cooker. I suggest making the cake as written, sugar topping and all.
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Slow Cooker Chocolate Lava Cake
Ingredients
For the cake batter:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder (see note 1)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/3 cup butter melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the cake topping:
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 1/4 cups hot water
For serving:
- Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream
- Maraschino cherries optional
Instructions
To make the cake batter:
- Coat a slow cooker with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. In a second bowl, whisk together the milk, melted butter, and vanilla.
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredient in to the well and whisk until smooth. Pour into the bottom of a slow cooker.
To make the topping:
- Whisk together the sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder until evenly combined. Sprinkle evenly over the batter in the slow cooker.
- Pour the hot water over the top of the batter and topping. Do not stir. Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours or LOW for 5 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in to the middle of the cake comes out clean with a few crumbs attached.
- Serve with ice cream or whipped cream, spooning the chocolate sauce from the bottom of the slow cooker over the top. Garnish with maraschino cherries if desired.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Cocoa powder: Look for the unsweetened baking cocoa powder, not the mix for making hot chocolate. Both natural and Dutch-process cocoa powder will work in this recipe.
- Yield: This recipe makes 1 gooey, delicious Chocolate Lava Cake, enough for 8 generous servings (see Tips and Variations for double and half recipe information).
- Storage: Store leftovers covered at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
I just made this 2 hours ago and ate two servings …. sooo good and chocolatey, like a dark chocolate type of taste. I gave some to my husband he loved it as well (and he’s a milk chocolate type person, not dark chocolate). This will be great to serve at my monthly potluck or even at a dinner party. Will go perfectly with vanilla ice cream, but I ate it on it’s own. Maybe I’ll also try topping it with fresh strawberries for contrast.
When I make it again, I might reduce the sugar a bit. It was a teeny tiny tad sweet for me, but most people probably will like it as is. This is a winner!!!
Thanks for taking the time to write, Carol! I’m so glad you loved it! I haven’t tried reducing the sugar. I did make it without the topping and I wouldn’t recommend omitting it. It was rubbery without it. Thanks again! – Meggan
A little disappointing. Tasted as if it had an artificial sweetener. Texture of the cake was rubbery. Not a fan.
Hi Kyle, sorry you didn’t care for it. Thanks for taking the time to write. – Meggan
Chocolate lava cake is a fav dessert. Found this receipe by accident. Made it once, fave receipe forever! Serve with ice cream!
Thank you, Carla! I’m happy you loved it! – Meggan
This was so good! Now I have to make a mocha version. Have yo ever tried to do that?
So glad you loved it, Cindy! Other readers have added coffee and enjoyed it! I haven’t had the chance to try it myself. Please write again if you do try it! – Meggan
Great texture but not the decadent treat we had in mind. Decided it wasn’t worth the calories – and we are a family of sweet lovers! Will not make again.
Hi Patti, sorry you didn’t care for this dessert. Thanks for taking the time to write. – Meggan
Simply out of this world
Thanks, Carole! ๐ – Meggan
No eggs?
Hi Vickie, correct. No eggs in this one. I hope you love it! – Meggan
So good, so simple. Eat it with ice cream.
Thanks, Casey! It’s so good with a scoop of ice cream! – Meggan
Hello! I am so excited to try this lovely recipe, as I don’t have an oven and have been craving a luscious homemade chocolate cake. I do have a question: do you think it would be alright to increase the amount of cocoa in the cake batter (and perhaps decrease the flour correspondingly)? I need my chocolate cake to be super duper chocolatey, and would like to put more than 3 tbsps of cocoa in it. (I’m not worried about upping the sugar, as I think that beautiful fudge sauce will make it plenty sweet for me.) Thank you so much for your help and for the recipe!
Hi Inga, I haven’t tried that substitution as it is chocolately and rich already. I would try the recipe as written and then adjust to your preference. Take care! I hope you love it! – Meggan
I made this per the recipe, but used oat milk instead of regular milk. It ended up being extremely runny in the end. Almost like it didnโt bake at all. I had it on High for 4 hours so it should have been fine. Would the oat milk make that much of a difference?
Hi Martin, I haven’t tried it with oat milk, so I can’t say for sure. I looked through other reader comments, and one reader made it with almond milk successfully. I’m so sorry it didn’t come out right. – Meggan