Coolhaus - Chocolate Molten Cake

Chocolate Molten Cake - Chocolate Ice Cream with Chewy Cake Pieces and a Fudge Swirl

Today we return to the Culver City-based Coolhaus brand for their Chocolate Molten Cake flavor.  A molten cake -- also called a lava cake -- is a cake which is either low-flour or no-flour which is not fully cooked so that it still has a pudding-like batter on the inside.  Sounds like a promising idea for an ice cream flavor.

Remembering from the first review of this brand that Coolhaus is the brand which is "architecturally inspired".  Which architect is associated with this flavor?  Why it is the Los Angeles-based architect, Michael Maltzan.  Maltzan is a living and active architect who in addition to doing the requisite of set of museums and theaters has focused a good portion of his work bringing bright and modern structures to previously-rundown neighborhoods.  An overview of his work is available at the website for his firm.  His current big project is replacing the iconic Sixth Street Viaduct which connects downtown Los Angeles to the Boyle Heights neighborhood while crossing the Los Angeles River and the 5, 10 and 101 freeways along the way.

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid, there is a small amount of frost on the top but nothing to be alarmed about.  I see chocolate ice cream and some of the dark fudge swirls are even evident right away.  Digging into the pint, the chocolate base is quite good.  The chocolate cake pieces were soft, fairly numerous and tasty as well.  The fudge swirl seems intended to mimic the 'molten' or 'lava' nature of the cake.  This swirl was a bit too thin to create that type of textural effect but it did add a strong chocolate kick to an already chocolatey mix which was quite good.  Chocolate lovers would approve. 

A very successful pint which I would recommend to anyone that loves chocolate.  It's interesting to see how it compares and contrasts to similar flavors from other brands.  Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie has larger, chewier brownie pieces instead of the softer cake pieces but no extra kick in its base.  The Brownie Batter Core flavor has the genuine lava-like core of uncooked batter which some brownie pieces but it also has a split base of chocolate and vanilla.  Steve's  Brooklyn Blackout Cake is a very similar flavor which features dark chocolate while this pint features regular chocolate.  Fans of the above will want to check out this Chocolate Molten Cake flavor.