madlori:

Magic Chocolate Flan Cake

This dessert is showy, spectacular and delicious.  And it’s magic, with science!  You put it in the bundt pan with caramel, then cake batter, then flan…but while it cooks, the cake and the flan magically switch places so when you flip the cake out of the pan, the flan is on top.  IT’S MAGIC.

(recipe from Cook’s Country magazine)

Cake

• ½ cup caramel sauce (store bought is fine)
• ½ cup plus 2 tbsp flour
• 1/3 cup baking cocoa
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 4 oz bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened, but you can use unsweetened – see note below)
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

Flan

• 1 (14 oz cans) Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
• 2.5 cups whole milk
• 6 oz cream cheese, softened
• 6 large eggs plus 4 large yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350.  Grease and flour (well) a 12-cup bundt pan, nonstick preferred.  If caramel sauce is stiff, microwave it a little.  Pour it into the bottom of the bundt pan.  Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in the bowl, set aside.  Combine chocolate and butter in a bowl and microwave it at 50% power 2 minutes at a time, stirring between, until it’s melted.  Whisk buttermilk, sugar, eggs and vanilla into chocolate until combined.  Stir in flour mixture until just combined.  Pour batter over caramel.  Note: if you only have baker’s (unsweetened) chocolate, add 4 tbsp of sugar to the flour mixture.

For the flan: Process all ingredients in blender until smooth.  If your blender isn’t large enough, do it in two batches.  Gently pour flan over cake batter in bundt pan.  You may not quite have room for all the batter; don’t let it go totally to the top of the pan.  Place the Bundt pan in a large roasting pan, place roasting pan in the oven and pour warm water into roasting pan until it’s halfway up the side of the Bundt pan.  Bake until the flan is at 180 degrees, about 90 minutes.  Let the pan cool for two hours, then pop it in the fridge for 8 hours.  

Put the bottom third of the Bundt pan into hot tap water for 1 minute.  You might need to use a knife to loosen the cake off the sides.  Invert it over a plate.