The chocolate cake

The chocolate cake is a perennial favorite, with numerous versions out there. The molten chocolate cake, which is also known as warm chocolate cake or lava cake, is one of my favorites. I still remember the one I had at The Datai resort at Langkawi, Malaysia. It was one of the best, if not the best molten cake I ever had. When I cut into it, oozing warm chocolate flows out. The superb chocolate, together with the moist cake and the vanilla ice cream, was simply heavenly!

Too bad The Datai resort is not easily accessible, and to me Langkawi is damn boring, probably because I’m not a beach person. So I’ve not had another chance of the heavenly taste. But I have tried similar molten cake at bakeries and restaurants, and some have come close. There used to be a Japanese sweets shop called ‘Beard Papa’ which has a small version at a fraction of the cost. I have to say it’s pretty good for a cheap and cheerful version. Unfortunately ‘Beard Papa’ stores have dwindled down to a handful now that there’re a lot more dessert choices.

A few months ago, a new cake shop opened in the basement one level of Raffles City mall, selling specifically molten cakes called ‘Smoulder’.

There is a wide selection of these mini molten cakes in various flavors, each at 2″ wide, selling for S$2.80 each. The bakery also offers chocolate cakes which they call ‘The Real Chocolate cake’.

For the mini molten cakes, the chocolate flavor even has various degree of dark chocolate mass. I first tried the one with the highest cocoa content, Intensely dark chocolate, which has 75% dark chocolate.

It certainly tastes like it is chockfull of cocoa mass; it’s more bitter than sweet. This is strictly for those dark chocolate connoisseur.

I tried the slightly less intense version, Dark chocolate, which has less cocoa, at 50%. The bitterness is offset by the sweetness, and this has a good balance.

The cakes are moist, but I didn’t warm them up and so I can’t say if there’ll be oozing chocolate.

I have also tried the warm chocolate cake from Starbucks. For a place not known for cakes, I’ve to say that it’s unexpectedly good. You have to remember to warm up the cake though, otherwise it’s not as great eaten cold.

Last weekend, we were at Takashimaya and there was a Sweets Fair. Expectedly there’re cheese cakes from Japan including Petit Merveille which we had tried previously. But there’s another Hokkaido brand called ‘Patisserie Jolli Creer’‘, which has cheese soufflé and chocolate soufflé available. I lnow the name sounds really wierd. My husband tried the cheese flavor and I had a sample of the chocolate one. My husband thought the cheese soufflé is really good, even slightly better than the one from Petit Merveille. But this post is about the chocolate cake.

The chocolate soufflé is fabulous despite not being freshly made and has been refrigerated for some time. I don’t know what the Japanese add into it but it’s able to retain moisture. It’s rather chocolatey, and not very sweet. Admittedly, at S$18.90 for a box of four mini soufflés, it’s pretty steep. But these are some of the best soufflés I’ve eaten, and as good, if not better, than those available in the patisserie shops here.

For Alex’s birthday, we ordered a ‘All Chocolate’ cake from Awfully Chocolate. I have tried other cakes from this bakery but not the chocolate cake. I know it’s very popular but thought it might be just like any others. The cake was better than we expected, like the Hokkaido chocolate soufflé, the cake is chocolatey and not overly sweet. Despite the cake being stored overnight, it was still moist and yummy. We definitely recommend the chocolate cake.