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Just wanted to second some of the folks who had problems. I'm an experienced baker. I've made a fallen chocolate souffle cake for years, but thought I'd try something new as my party pleaser.

Had the same problem as most. Baked for 30 minutes, and the middle was 'molten'. Poured back into the pan with relatively little damage, baked for at least another 30 minutes then unmolded. It's sitting in a fudgy puddle on my counter. It certainly tastes fabulous, but I can't serve it to the judging masses.

What went wrong?!

Possibilities:
1) Mistakenly boiled the whole 1 1/3 c sugar with the bourbon to start. So I only added a few tbsp of sugar to the eggs.
2) I noticed that the chocolate had nearly completely cooled half way through the first stick of butter. It took at least 10 minutes to incorporate all of the butter.

Could these be the culprit(s)?

Thanks all!

I made this cake over the weekend for a family party and it came out perfect! My husband loved it!

this did not work for me at all. i took the cake out after 30 minutes exactly and it was still shiny in the middle. in my gut, i thought that it wasn't done, but i second guessed that feeling and took it out. it seemed mushy and was falling apart. it wasn't done. i didn't know what to do, so i crammed it back in the pan and put it back in the oven for a bit. needless to say, it wasn't pretty, and i won't be serving it for my dinner party tomorrow, which is disappointing because i had already made the white chocolate sauce. i really don't know what i did wrong...well, except for the fact that i didn't have a round pan, so i used a square 9 inch pan. my oven temperature is pretty right on--although it is an old oven. any thoughts. i'm so disappointed.

anyway, your chocolate pot de creme has worked for me. so i made that (it was just sort of exhausting making two desserts after working on my main course for all day.) also, any ideas on what to do with the white chocolate cream?

vickyb, i also made the cake in a 9-inch pan that's less than 1.5 inches deep. i don't think the cake is really supposed to rise, maybe just a little bit.
30 minutes was exactly enough for me. I baked 32 mins exactly and felt like i may have overbaked it slightly. I was even using a foil roasting pan for the water bath that was barely 1.5 inches itself and it was still fine. I would recommend not skipping the white chocolate cream, it adds a very nice contrast to the cake. I hope you figure out what the reason was for your longer baking time and post back here.

Also, I had a very hard time transfering to my serving platter. The weight of the platter (before I could flip it) distorted one small edge of the cake. Next time I think I will use a lighter platter. However, is there any trick to flipping it onto the platter?

Vicky, I don't have a clue why your cake was still molten after 30 minutes. the fact that it was molten and that you were still able to unmold it is a miracle. I'd say that your oven temperature was off, but my bet is that you've checked that and have a thermometer, right? (It would have been too simple.) I can't come up with the answer, but I am surprised, since this is a recipe that's been around for over 10 years and has been made by sooooooooooo many people. Is it possible that you might have mismeasured an ingredient? I'm reaching here because I'm puzzled. Sorry.

bmorecupcake, you can use the "baking" chocolates, but you won't get a fabulous cake because the chocolates themselves aren't fabulous. It's true that Hershey's and Nestles have baking chocolates, but they have also come out with better quality chocolates and you might want to try them -- they'd be the ones that list the cacao/cocoa percentages on the packages (look for a bar that's over 50% cacao). You might also look for Lindt chocolate (it's often in supermarkets). When you're ready to break open the piggy bank, go for Valrhona, ScharffenBerger or Guittard. And, yes, of course you can use coffee in the cream (the color will be dark, but you know that).

Gorzd -- many thanks! I'm so glad you're enjoying the recipes.

So, just to be sure, don't use the "baking" chocolates, but just the regular chocolates? Hershey's and Nestle also have baking chocolates which is why I'm asking.

If using coffee, is it ok to put cofee in the white chocolate cream, too?

nyalys, I'm so happy that you and yours liked the cake soooooooo much! Don't you just love it when clean-up is that easy?

bmorecupcake - if you can swing it, I'd suggest that you use one of the high-end Hershey's or Nestle's chocolates for this cake. While the ingredients in all chocolates are pretty much the same -- cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla and lecithin or other emulsifiers -- the quality of chocolate, like coffee, depends on the quality of the beans, the way in which they're dried and roasted and then made into bars. It's too complicated to describe in much detail here, but if you ever get the chance to do a comparative tasting of chocolates, you'll know the difference immediately. And, don't worry about covering the cake iwth plastic wrap -- it won't melt or burn. As for getting the pan out of the water bath -- use mitts or a couple of dish towels. Since you only fill the roasting pan with enough water to come 1 inch up the side of the cake pan, you'll have enough room to safely grip the cake pan.

Made this today for brunch dessert for my family. Lets just say clean up was very easy since there was nothing left on anyone's plate. I substituted coffee for bourbon and it was very good.

Dorie -- have you tried Lora Brody's recipe for Le Trianon, the dense chocolate cake that was the specialty at the long-lamented NYC bakery Colette? It's in Growing Up on the Chocolate Diet, and includes a very amusing story about how LB finally got the very secret, highly guarded recipe that supposedly went with Colette (the aponymous owner of the bakery) to her grave. It's very similar to this, although it's lighter, higher, a bit more cake-like and less dense and fudgy, with a higher proportion of flour.