This World Chocolate Day, Learn The Origins Of The

Chocolate Fondant Cake

Through The Ages

Quick Summary

The existence of World Chocolate Day goes back to July 7, 1550, which marks the arrival of chocolate in Europe. It's as good a reason as any to dig into how chocolate fondant cake came to be, which might not be as old as this day, but old enough to predate the famous chocolate lava cake. You could call the chocolate fondant cake the ancestor of the modern chocolate lava cake. Both have a soft, gooey chocolate centre wrapped in a delicate, baked shell.

Deep Dive

The chocolate fondant cake has a lineage that stretches back to the cocoa breads of the 18th century that ultimately evolved into the frenzy of chocolate lava cakes today. The latter was something that swept American restaurants in the 1990s; this molten cake, after all, is an American dessert. But the creator is not American but French, who was a chef called Michel Bras, who was said to have invented it in 1981. 

While he might have been the one to kickstart its popularity, the choco lava cake most of the world eats today owes just as much to Jean-Georges Vongerichten's simpler, oven-friendly 1987 adaptation in New York. This World Chocolate Day special article traces that full arc, from cocoa's earliest appearance in cake batters to the two competing ‘molten cake’ origin stories, and breaks down exactly how chocolate fondant and choco lava cake differ.

Where Did Chocolate Cake Itself Begin?

Chocolate fondant cake's story doesn't start with a runny centre, and starts almost a century and a half earlier, with chocolate cake struggling to live up to its name. Its history goes back to the 17th century, when cocoa powder brought over from the Americas was first added to existing European cake recipes. For a long stretch after that, chocolate cake wasn't really chocolate cake as it is known today, meaning it referred to a plain white or yellow cake served alongside a cup of hot chocolate, similar to how coffee cake pairs with coffee rather than being made out of coffee.

The turning point came in 1828, when Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten invented a hydraulic press that could separate cocoa butter from cocoa solids, creating the dry, powdery cocoa used in baking today. This invention made chocolate cheaper and easier to actually mix into batter rather than just serve on the side. Even so, chocolate cake recipes stayed rare in cookbooks well into the 19th century. One of the earliest true ‘modern’ chocolate cake recipes is credited to American food writer Sarah Tyson Rorer, whose recipe used melted chocolate folded into the batter alongside baking powder. The latter was a fairly new ingredient at the time, first commercialised in 1843.

How Did Chocolate Cake Get Lighter and Popular?

Through the late 1800s and into the 20th century, two things changed chocolate cake's status from a hard-to-find dessert into an everyday bake: tried-and-tested leavening agents and cheaper cocoa. The mass production of baking powder and baking soda also meant that those baking at home could finally get a consistent rise, effectively changing the cake’s dense and bready texture to the soft, airy and spongy texture known today. 

At the same time, industrial cocoa processing made chocolate cheap enough for regular kitchens, not just wealthy households. This process was made easier by the works of Swiss chocolatier Rodolphe Lindt, who in 1879 invented conching, a process that made chocolate smoother and easier to blend into batter. By the 1920s, packaged cake mixes had entered the picture, with several brands turning chocolate cake into one of the easiest desserts in America. This also paved the way for chocolate fondant cake to later emerge and shatter the usual norm of fully-baked, fully-set convention cakes.

Who Actually Invented Chocolate Fondant Cake?

The invention of the chocolate fondant cake has many versions floating around, and none of them has been proven to date. The most widely credited version is French chef Michel Bras, who says he invented the cake in 1981 after two years of experimentation, inspired by a memory of eating hot chocolate with his family after a bitterly cold day of cross-country skiing. His original recipe, which he called ‘coulant au chocolat’, was challenging to make as it involved shaping frozen chocolate ganache (using pieces of garden hose as a mould) and inserting it into a rice-starch-based batter before baking, for the ganache to melt into a molten centre while the exterior cooked around it.

Another version credits this chocolate dessert’s invention to American chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who is said to have accidentally pulled an underbaked chocolate cake out of the oven and served it anyway, discovering that diners loved the molten result. Whether or not that account is entirely accurate, Vongerichten did bring a simplified version of the dessert to his New York restaurant in 1987, and it was this easier, batter-only method with no frozen ganache insert required which spread the fastest and eventually became the standard restaurant ‘choco lava cake’ recipe.

Pastry expert Jacques Torres also confirmed that similar molten-centre desserts were already circulating in France through the 1980s, suggesting the concept wasn't the work of just one person, but Bras remains the most consistently cited originator, and his version was reportedly patented the same year he introduced it.

What Made the Cake Take off Commercially?

Vongerichten's version was much simpler and was not as technique-heavy as that of Chef Bras, which made the former’s cake much more popular. Bras’s complicated method depended on carefully freezing a ganache insert and timing the bake, so it thawed into liquid form without overcooking the surrounding cake, which was harder to replicate even for other professional chefs.

Vongerichten's approach instead used a normal flour-based batter baked for a shorter time, at high heat, so the outside set while the underbaked centre stayed liquid. That simplicity is why choco lava cake, in its Vongerichten form, went on to dominate restaurant dessert menus through the 1990s and eventually became a staple among chocolate desserts across households.

Chocolate Fondant vs Choco Lava Cake

Despite being used almost interchangeably, chocolate fondant and choco lava cake aren't strictly identical, and the distinction comes down to technique rather than ingredients.

Chocolate Fondant Cake Recipe

You have tried the chocolate lava cake, the big one and mini ones and even a chocolate mug cake that reminds you of the same. This World Chocolate Day, try this old-school fondant cake recipe that is a French classic. 

Ingredients for Chocolate Fondant Cake

• Good quality chocolate (chopped): 200g

• Butter (room temperature): 100g

• Sugar: 100g

• All-purpose flour: 50g

• Eggs (room temperature): 50g 

Instructions for Chocolate Fondant Cake

1. Put the chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. For best results, make sure both are at room temperature and not cold or melted. 

2. Microwave on low power or in short intervals of 10-20 seconds each; make sure to stir in between each interval. Repeat until smooth and fully melted. You can also melt them using the bain-marie method. You should have a glossy mix after 7 minutes. Set aside to cool.

3. Once the conction cools down a little, pour the whisked eggs while stirring. Then add the flour and sugar and keep stirring until they are integrated. The batter will be quite thick but pourable.

4. Transfer the cake batter between 4 ramekins (around 180ml each) if you want a molten centre (lava cakes). You can opt for baking in a cake tin, not larger than 6 inches and lined, but the result will be fudgier, not molten (which is the original).

5. If using individual ramekins, bake for 8-12 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C, or if using a cake tin, stick to the same temperature but bake for 20 minutes.

6. Serve the cake semi-warm with a dusting of powdered sugar or vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate Fondant Cake and World Chocolate Day

Chocolate has a long history that began even before the bars were invented, when its bitterness was actually celebrated. The same bitter element today defines chocolates around the world, with multiple recipes that sprang forth with the introduction of cocoa powder and baking powder into the baking community. Kicking it off with chocolate fondant cake, made easier with Van Houten's 1828 cocoa press, to Michel Bras's 1981 experiment with frozen ganache, to Jean-Georges Vongerichten's simplified 1987 version, choco lava cake has since become a household name.