In previous years, if a restaurant served chocolate fondant as a dessert, I would always choose it.

The sensation of breaking into a domed pudding with a spoon and seeing chocolate sauce oozing out never got old.

Somehow, I had to recreate this experience so that I could still enjoy the pleasures of a fondant. This molten lava cake is raw, requiring no baking at all (although it can be slightly heated in a low oven for 10 minutes if preferred).

Makes: 6 cakes

Ingredients

● Softened coconut oil, for greasing the muffin tins

For the cakes:
● 200g blanched almonds
● 70g rolled oats
● 325g soft pitted Medjool dates
● 4½ tbsp cacao powder
● 4 tbsp maca powder
● 3 tbsp maple syrup
● ¼ tsp salt

For the sauce:
● 1 ripe avocado
● 6 tbsp maple syrup
● 3 tbsp cacao powder
● 3 tbsp maca powder
● 4 tbsp almond butter
● 2 tbsp softened raw coconut oil

Method

● Grease the muffin tins with coconut oil

● Mix all the cake ingredients in a food processor until well combined and sticky.

● Using your hands, use three-quarters of the mix to line each hole in a muffin tin with the mixture, covering the bottom and the sides of the hole only and leaving the top open.

● Alternatively, use rubber muffin moulds if you have them.

● Now you need to mix all the sauce ingredients in a food processor until thick, creamy and well combined.

● Spoon 2 tablespoons of the sauce into each cake case and then cover the sauce with the remaining cake mix as a lid, ensuring the edges are stuck together.

● Turn out the cakes to serve.