This pressure cooker chocolate lava cake is a pretty incredible dump cake with just 3 ingredients! Make it in your Instant Pot, Crockpot Express or a Ninja Foodi molten lava cake today for a decadent treat.
Ever since we got our fancy multi cooker we’ve been creating lots of heavenly Instant Pot recipes. This pressure cooker lava cake goes down as one fabulously rich chocolatey desserts though! (affiliate links present)
Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker Lava Cake
You can make this in any electric pressure cooker you have, doesn’t matter what the brand is. IP is great but we love Ninja Foodi recipes too. My mom has a crockpot express and directions for that are just the same as you will see below too.
Think of all your favorite flavors in one bite and done in about 30 minutes without ever having to turn on your oven. Now on the list as one of our favorite easy dump cake recipes!
Jump to
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
Instant Lava Cake
This is as instant as this to die for, better than sex sometimes called, dessert. You can throw it all together in a dish and no oven is required! During the summertime this is a game changer since we aren’t about to bake when it is 100 degrees outside.
I started this whole quest when I first got my pot many many years ago. I made a creation in the oven and figured I should be able to cook it this way too. I tried this pudding cake in a springform pan and it was so so good and moist that I just had to keep going and “baking” more.
Amp your pressure cooker chocolate lava cake up with a 4th by topping it with a handful of extra chocolate chips if you’re ready to take it to the next level. Pretty cheap to make and honestly you can find almost everything you need at the local Dollar Store which is kinda’ fun. You can make this in any size but I have the 6 qt. just for reference.
Instant Pot Lava Cake without Ramekins
This is free of egg yolks too so if you’re looking for an egg free dessert this one is great. Some use small ramekin dishes but we think this larger version is easier since you can make a larger batch at the same time. Link to the dish is in the recipe card and below to grab. As long as it fits inside and is oven-safe you are good to go.
Ingredients
- Chocolate cake mix – we use whatever is on sale
- Can of pie filling – we use cherry
- Butter
- Chocolate chips
- dark chocolate or mini are great
- Oven safe bowl – this one will fit into a 6 qt or larger Instant Pot
Toppings
- Whipped cream
- Melted chocolate
- Powdered sugar
How long does it take to cook pressure cooker chocolate lava cake?
The directions are quite simple. Like other molten lava cake recipes you’re just dumping everything into your bowl in the order explained below. Close lid and valve to sealing position. Cook time is 25 minutes and just know that when it comes out it will be ooey gooey. You don’t want to over-bake it or have it come out like a traditional oven baked cake. A dump cake in general is very wet and almost has to be scooped out.
How to Make Instant Pot Lava Cake with Cake Mix
- Pour 1.5 c. water into your pressure cooker and put a trivet inside.
- Pour your pie filling into your oven safe bowl, the sprinkle your cake mix on top, then pour your melted butter on top of that.
- If you are adding chocolate chips sprinkle those on the very top.
- Cover the bowl with foil and lower on to the trivet (best to make a sling so you can get it back out)
- Close lid and set venting position to closed.
- Set to high pressure for 25 minutes.
- Allow to sit and release pressure naturally for 5 minutes, then release remaining pressure.
- Lift out, remove foil and allow to cool slightly in pan to firm up a bit and then enjoy!
You aren’t going to get a clean slice out of this one. Instant Pot lava cakes are just like they say. A flow of wet gooey chocolate and cherries ready to be devoured. Looking for more quick easy dessert recipes?
3 Ingredient Cake Without Oven
This is what my kids call this! Now that they are teenagers and love experimenting in the kitchen they will make this without me at all. Then I just get to enjoy it. 😉 It is easy to mix and match all the things so they can make different creations quickly and see which they enjoy most.
Absolutely, we have made several in our pressure cooker, air fryer and slow cooker!! If you have the right temperature, dishes and cook time it is possible and a great way to bake a cake without an oven if it is hot outside or yours is broken. Our molten lava in Instant Pot here is our fave though. 😉
Yes, you can use these in any brand of pressure cooker as long as they are marked as oven-safe. Those are great when baking sweets or you want individual servings of your favorite recipes.
Other desserts without an oven
If you’re looking for more Instant Pot desserts, these pressure cooker brownies get raving reviews from everyone! You can omit the peanut butter if you want but we love them that way. It is a lot like a flourless chocolate cake if you’ve had one of those.
Dense in consistency and almost fudgy. All I can say is it is just amazing. Air fryer cake is fabulous with a bit of crisp, and then there is Instant Pot chocolate rice pudding. We started this whole Instant Pot desserts journey when we made this 3 ingredient Instant Pot dump cake using a spice cake mix and apple pie filling.
Want a treat for Valentine’s Day but don’t want to turn on the oven?? These are great choices!! We don’t need an excuse and both of these you see here are the perfect size for the 5 of us because they are so sweet. For these and our Crockpot peanut clusters, you only need a few bites to satisfy any sweet tooth really.
- Coca-Cola chocolate cake
- Dump peach cobbler uses canned pie filling too
It is also delicious but with a lighter flavor since it doesn’t incorporate chocolate.You should try all of them and see which you prefer. Let us know what you think!
Pressure Cooker Chocolate Lava Cake
Equipment
- 1 pressure cooker
- 1 trivet
Ingredients
- 1 can pie filling, 21 oz., we used cherry
- 1/2 box cake mix, usually 2 c or so, we used chocolate
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
- 1/2 c chocolate chips, semi sweet
- 1.5 c water
Instructions
- Pour 1.5 c. water into your pressure cooker and put a trivet inside.
- Pour your pie filling into your oven safe bowl, the sprinkle your cake mix on top, then pour your melted butter on top of that.
- If you are adding chocolate chips sprinkle those on the very top.
- Cover the bowl with foil and lower on to the trivet (best to make a sling so you can get it back out).
- Set to high pressure for 25 minutes.
- Allow to sit and release pressure naturally for 5 minutes, then release remaining pressure.
- Lift out, remove foil and allow to cool slightly in pan to firm up a bit and then enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this in the 6.5 Ninja Foodie, in the Foodie acessorie baking pan with a Betty Crocker Super Moist Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake mix. (Halved it was 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons.) It was perfect. I will make this recipe again and again.
OH good!!