Warm Red Velvet Cake Swirled with Creamy White Chocolate Filling
This Red Velvet White Chocolate (Slow Cooker) Lava Cake combines warm and gooey red velvet cake (from a box mix!) cooked together with a creamy white chocolate lava filling! It’s a really easy and great for a crowd! Plus it doesn’t need any oven space! I like to serve with fresh whipped cream and a sprinkle of chocolate chips!
The red velvet cake will cook around the edge of the slow cooker while the cream cheese/pudding/white chocolate mixture will stay all gooey and creamy. When I serve I make sure to get some of the cake from the edge and the gooey lava mixture from the center. It reminds me of a warm comforting bread pudding with a creamy sauce!

The cake is delicious anytime of the year, but is especially pretty at Holiday time – with its pretty Christmas red color!
I mix my cake right in my slow cooker with my KitchenAid Hand Mixer + Flex Edge Beaters! Just make sure your slow cooker insert is metal utensil safe.
Oven Baking Option:
If you’d like to bake this in the oven instead – There are directions for that in the recipe notes.
Red Velvet White Chocolate (Slow Cooker) Lava Cake – Step-by-Step Photos:









Other Slow Cooker Cake Recipes:

Red Velvet White Chocolate (Slow Cooker) Lava Cake
Equipment
- 1 Slow cooker 6 quart - Baking results may vary depending upon brand/shape of slow cooker, I used a KitchenAid 6 qt oval shaped slow cooker.
- 1 Hand Mixer (if your slow cooker insert is metal utensil safe) I use my KitchenAid with Flex Edge Beaters
Ingredients
Slow Cooker Prep
- nonstick baking spray
Cake Ingredients:
- 1 15.25 ounce red velvet cake mix
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder optional
- 1 cup sour cream regular (not low fat)
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup neutral oil such as canola or avocado
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
White Chocolate "Lava" Filling Ingredients:
- 1 package, 3.4 oz. instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 brick, 8 oz. cream cheese – cut into chunks room temperature
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Optional – Whipped Cream – for topping:
- 2 cups cold heavy cream sometimes called "whipping cream"
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons Instant vanilla pudding mix if you want to make up to a day ahead
Instructions
Prep Slow Cooker:
- I used a KitchenAid oval 6qt slow cooker – baking times/results may vary depending upon slow cooker brand/size/shape.
- Spray with non-stick spray
Prepare Cake:
- Add all of the Cake Ingredients (Cake Mix, espresso powder, sour cream, eggs, oil, vanilla, mini chocolate chips) to slow cooker and mix with a hand mixer* or by hand. (*My slow cooker has a ceramic insert and is safe to use with my hand mixer – you can alternatively mix in a bowl and pour into slow cooker, if your slow cooker is not metal utensil safe.)
Prepare White Chocolate Lava Filling:
- In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese until smooth.
- Mix in pudding mix, milk and vanilla. Allow to set for about 5 minutes – will thicken.
- Pour cream cheese filling into the center of the cake mix. Sprinkle with white chocolate chips.
Bake in Slow Cooker:
- Set slow cooker (covered) to high and cook for approx. 2 hours and 20 minutes. or until the cake around the edges looks risen and baked. (Don't take off lid during cooking.) The center of the cake will be gooey. (It will have a similar consistency to a baked bread pudding with a creamy sauce poured over top.)
Optional Whipped Cream for Topping:
- Whip cream, sugar and optional pudding mix with hand mixer or stand mixer (or by hand with whisk).
Notes
To Bake in Oven:
- Spray 13″ x 9″ baking pan with non-stick spray.
- (Make sure the pan is at least 2.25 inches deep – the cake will rise pretty high.)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Prepare Cake and Lava filling as directed in recipe.
- Pour cake into prepared baking pan, top with lava filling – (I like to leave about an inch of the cake batter showing around the edge of the pan.)
- Sprinkle with the white chocolate chips.
- You need to cover the pan to bake. If your pan doesn’t have an oven-safe lid, you can cover the pan with foil like I did. My cake did rise and stick a little bit to the foil. So I would recommend spraying the inside of the foil with non-stick spray.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Carefully take a little peak under the foil to see if the cake is pulling away from the side of the dish. (Watch for the hot steam.) It will still be moist, so won’t look like a traditionally baked cake – it’s more like a steamed cake/pudding. Re-cover with the foil and keep in oven an extra 5-10 minutes if needed.
- Remove from oven and let the cake rest about 5-10 minutes. I keep it covered until serving. Definitely serve warm.
- Refrigerate leftovers and rewarm in microwave before enjoying.

Tina you are incredible! I have been using my kitchen
Overall, a tasty treat – I just did a trial run to see if I want to make this for Christmas. but my QUESTION is – the outer inch or so of the ‘cake’ was pretty tough and overcooked. can that be avoided somehow? cook it a little less? I did right around 2 hours in an oval crock pot on high.
To be fair, I forgot to buy white chocolate chips so I used dark and missed the instruction to drizzle on top so they got mixed into the lava part…maybe that made the lava part too big and caused the cake to cook too much? Any tips are appreciated!
Hi Jill! Thanks for reaching out! Yes, I would cook it less. I would keep an eye on it from 1.5 hours – or if you have a medium setting, switch to that half way through. The outside should be set like moist cake and the inside will be wiggly and gooey. Unfortunately slow cookers vary so much in their temperatures, there’s no standard for the temperature settings from brand to brand, size to size – so it’s hard to give exact timing/temperature. You’re so smart for doing a test run! Merry Christmas!
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