Athletes Are Raving About the Winter Olympics’ Chocolate Lava Cake—Here’s How to Bake It at Home
Move over medals. This molten showstopper is the hottest event in Milan, and it only takes minutes to bake at home.
- Chocolate lava cake is the breakout dessert of the 2026 Winter Olympics, with athletes calling it even better than the viral 2024 Paris chocolate muffin.
- Team Canada’s Natalie Spooner and other athletes have made it go viral on social media.
- You can recreate the Milan magic at home with an easy peanut butter chocolate lava cake recipe.
Move over, Paris chocolate muffin. There’s a new dessert diva doing quadruple axels in the Olympic Village—and she’s oozing with confidence.
At the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, athletes have officially declared the chocolate lava cake the main character. The warm, molten, fork-sink-and-sigh kind. The “I trained four years for this bite” kind.
If the 2024 Paris Games gave us the now-legendary chocolate muffin—catapulted into viral fame by Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen and his beautifully unhinged muffin thirst traps—then Milan has answered with a gooey Italian glow-up.
Enter: tortino cuore fondente. Translation? “Little cake with a melting heart.” I’m not crying, you are.
The single-serve chocolate bombshell, with its molten center flowing like a perfectly executed downhill run, has become the Olympic Village’s most coveted podium prize. Forget medals. Athletes are lining up for that lava flow.
Olympic athletes are on Team Lava
Canadian ice hockey star and proud self-proclaimed “chocolate monster” Natalie Spooner took to TikTok with a rave review:
“Mmm, mmmmmm. This is what I’ve been waiting for. It’s gooey, it’s chocolatey, the middle is delicious.” She gave it a 9.1 out of 10, adding, “Chocolate monster couldn’t be happier that it lived up to the hype!”
And she’s not alone. Canadian speed skater Courtney Sarault and other athletes have been flooding TikTok with lava cake content, some boldly declaring it even better than the 2024 muffin. Yes. We said it. The muffin has been dethroned. Long live the lava.
Can’t make it to Milan? Bake the gold-deserving dessert at home
Want to recreate that Milan magic in your kitchen? Then try our easy peanut butter chocolate lava cake recipe. Because chocolate x PB is the Ilia Malinin of flavor combos. Dominant. Untouchable. GOAT status.
It’s rich. It’s dramatic. It has a molten center that deserves its own slow-mo replay. It’s basically Valentine’s Day in a ramekin.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Lava Cakes
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into pieces, plus more for greasing
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for dusting
- 6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
- 3 large eggs plus 3 yolks, at room temperature
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (not natural type)
- 3 Tbsp. confectioners’ sugar
Directions
Heat oven to 450°F. In medium saucepan, bring 1 inch water to a simmer. Butter six 6-ounce ramekins and dust with granulated sugar.
Combine chocolate chips and butter in large heatproof bowl and place bowl over (but not in) simmering water to gently melt, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and let cool slightly.
Meanwhile, in medium bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, eggs, yolks, vanilla, and salt until well combined. In small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Add egg mixture to chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; add flour mixture and gently whisk until batter is smooth. Divide half of batter among prepared ramekins.
In second small bowl, stir together peanut butter and confectioners’ sugar until combined. Scoop 1 tablespoon into each half-filled ramekin. Cover with remaining chocolate batter, dividing among ramekins. Place on rimmed baking sheet.
Bake until sides of cakes are set and centers are still slightly gooey, 11 to 13 minutes. Let cakes cool 2 minutes, then loosen edges in each ramekin with small offset spatula. Using kitchen towel, carefully invert each onto plate to serve. Dust with additional cocoa powder if desired.
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