The Tortino al Cioccolato, chocolate tortino, souffle, or lava cake are synonyms of warm chocolatey goodness in the form of a small chocolate cake with a moist and liquid chocolate center. The most interesting part is when you crack into the center and you see the liquid chocolate oozing out into the plate.
What is a tortino in english? In Italian tórta is a cake while tortino means a small cake. It can be cooked using various ingredients mainly vegetables or cheeses but worldwide the word tortino is mostly famous for the chocolate tortino recipe.

Yields: 4 portion
Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 13 mins Total: 23 mins
What is a tortino? In Italian tórta is a cake while tortino means a small cake. It can be cooked using various ingredients mainly vegetables or cheeses but worldwide the word tortino is mostly famous for the chocolate tortino recipe.
I tasted my first-ever chocolate tortino on my second journey to Tuscany around 13 years ago. We were in the heart of Siena when we decided to have a light lunch. Actually, I wasn’t really hungry but when the waiter recommended we try their delicious tortino dessert, I could not resist. I have to admit that this Hot Chocolate “Love” Cake also melted my heart.
What is a Chocolate Tortino?
The chocolate tortino is an easy quick dessert that is crunchy on the outside and soft, warm, and gooey in its center. The result? It’s very popular to use for a romantic evening to conquer the heart and palate of your loved one but can also be enjoyed if you invite over your friends and colleagues and would like to impress them. This recipe is even more special since you don’t have to prepare anything different for your vegan guests!
So in this recipe, we ditch the butter and eggs and replace them with vegetable oil and plant-based milk. The result is a hot chocolate pleasure bomb!
The only precaution to keep in mind concerns the cooking time, which should not be too long or too short: set it by doing the toothpick test.

Chocolate Tortino Step by Step
First I cut the dark chocolate into chunks. Then in a small pan, I melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. Stirring with a spoon helps it melt quicker. If you prefer you can also use the microwave on 600W for 1 to 2 minutes to melt the chocolate.
When the chocolate is melted, pour it into a bowl and add all the other wet ingredients, whisking until everything is mixed well. The next step is to add the dry ingredients. Remember to sift the flour and cacao powder and mix well with a spatula.
Take some 8cm molds with a high edge and oil the bottom and edges well. Subsequently, sprinkle with cacao or brown sugar. Pour the mixture filling 2/3 of the mold and then cook in a preheated conventional oven at 180 degrees for 10 – 13 minutes. Take it out of the oven immediately.
The molds should be turned upside down on a small plate to turn out each cake.
Before serving, decorate with icing sugar and enjoy!

Accompaniments and Sides
The chocolate tortino can be served with a handful of berries and vanilla ice-cream
You might like more…
- Chocolate Chip Lava Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Chocolate Almond Balls
- Kurabiye Sweet Turkish Biscuits
- Chocolate Chip Flapjacks

Chocolate Tortino
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 4 people 1x
Ingredients
For the cupcakes (4 with 8cm diameter)
- 100 g Dark chocolate
- 40 g Flour 00
- 1/2 tsp Baking powder
- 70 g Sugar
- 40 ml Vegetable Oil
- 40 g Cacao powder
- 1 cup Plant-based Milk
- 1 Vanilla bean
To Serve
- 10 g Icing Sugar
Instructions
- First cut the dark chocolate into chunks, then place in a pan and melt in the chocolate in a bain marie or in microwave. Stir with a spoon to help it melt quicker.
- Pour the melted chocolate in a bowl, add the sugar, the oil, cacao, backing powder, the plant-based milk, vanilla bean seeds and the flour.
- Continue to whisk until it is light and frothy.
- Take some 8cm molds with a high edge and oil the bottom and edges well. Subsequently, sprinkle with cacao or brown sugar.
- Pour the mixture filling 2/3 of the mold and then cook in a preheated conventional oven at 180 degrees for 10 – 13 minutes. Take out of the oven immediately.
- Sprinkle some icing sugar and serve immediately
Notes
- Start batch freezing these small cakes so that I could serve them in 15 minutes whenever I felt like it.
- Test the exact time it takes to take out from the freezer and cook perfectly in your oven to make sure you’ll impress guests!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Calories: 521
- Sugar: 39
- Sodium: 40
- Fat: 35
- Saturated Fat: 21
- Carbohydrates: 46
- Fiber: 4
- Protein: 7
- Cholesterol: 174
Keywords: chocolate tortino, chocolate tortino dessert, lava cake, souffle, tortino, tortino al cioccolato
2 comments
I tried this recipe and it was amazing! Definitely will try to batch freeze the next time I try these tortino cakes.
Great! Please let me know how it goes.