Chocolate Flan Cake
If you are looking for an “Ooohs and Ahs” cake, try this one. It looks complicated, but is incredibly simple. According to all the reviews posted on Recipezaar, where it was originally posted by my good friend “Miss Annie”, it tastes good too! We haven’t cut into it yet.
Here are some pictures I took along the way. The ingredients are below. I
When I poured the flan batter over the chocolate, Fuzz said it looked like “Alligators in a Swamp”. ….
…but when I flipped it out she said “Wow”. So did Todd.
Now I have to admit, Todd and I don’t really like flan. Maybe this cake will change that. I haven’t chilled it yet, so I’ll give you a full review tomorrow.
Chocolate Flan Cake
1 box chocolate cake mix — 18.25 oz
11 ounces caramel topping, softened or at room temp
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
12 ounces evaporated milk
1/2 cup milk
8 ounces cream cheese — softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with flour-added cooking spray. Pour caramel topping into pan.
Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Pour the cake batter into the cake pan over the caramel topping.
Make the flan. Pour condensed, evaporated and fresh milks into a blender. Add softened cream cheese, vanilla and eggs and blend or process until smooth. Pour the flan mixture very slowly over the cake batter.
Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray and cover the pan TIGHTLY with the foil. Covering tightly is very important. Set the Bundt pan into a large pan and set on the oven rack and slide in.
Carefully pour hot water into the larger pan to a depth of 2 inches (The Bundt pan will be sitting in 2 inches of water).
After two hours, remove cake from water and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Peel off the aluminum foil. Invert cake onto a large plate with rim. The caramel topping should flow down the sides.
Cool completely then refrigerate.
Not like flan??? oh my…
oh wow. like totally wow. (to the recipe, that is.) your interest, or lack thereof, in flan, it affects me not at all.
That looks so cool. I am going to try it!
I was hoping this cake would make me like flan. It’s not a dessert I hate, just something I don’t find as appealing as cheesecake.
At room temperature, this flan was kind of lumpy. After being chilled, it smoothed out quite a bit and had a much better texture. It’s not very sweet, so you may want to add some more caramel sauce.
In the meantime, I’d be curious to hear how a different but similar flan recipe works out. There’s a prize winning recipe in Southern Living which is similar, however it uses extra yolks, sugar and is strained. It might make for a creamier, velvetier flan. Here’s the link if anyone wants to experiment.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_25696,00.html
Obviously, you’d skip the sugar burning part and just use the method this woman uses for flan — separating eggs, straining, etc.
I think maybe a pumpkin flan or a chai-spiced flan would be interesting too.
I have Marta’s pumpkin flan recipe, if you want it, drop me an email. It’s really, really good. I’ve made it for Thanksgiving a couple of times.
But this is The Perfect Flan.
do you really bake this for 2 hours?? not a typo? It looks wonderful.
Oh, this one I have to try!
I’ll be interested to hear other reviews. 40 people on Recipezaar loved it.
D, the cook time is definitely 2 hours.
I had trouble with this recipe. Seemed like the chocolate cake batter substantially filled the bundt pan, but as it turns out had room for the flan because it leaked out from my Cuisinart deluxe food processor. (huge mess) Finished the flan in the blender. Unless this is fabulous can’t see making it again. Leslie
Leslie,
Thanks for pointing that out. I have changed the instructions to say “blender” since food processors tend to link.
This is the best tasting cake I have ever made!
This is THE BEST flan cake!! I’ve made it for family and friends, and everyone asks for it at parties and holidays. It gets easier the more you make it. I use an old original Bundt cake pan, ways a ton. But it has the room for all the ingredients. You have to slowly pour in the liguid onto the cake mix.
I’m glad you all liked it. I haven’t made this one in a while, so thanks for bringing it to my attention. It’s a great holiday cake.
Has anyone tried this with homemade cake batter? What were the results?
I don’t use box mixes, and was wondering if anyone had done the scratch route yet. If not, I guess I will have to be the guinea pig and let you all know!
My results using SCRATCH cake: EXCELLENT!
It was served at a holiday party and 4 people requested the recipe.
However, My favorite cake recipe uses 1 & 3/4C Flour, 3/4C Cocoa and 1 & 3/4C Milk … which made too much batter for the pan. So, if you do use a scratch recipe; I would say use one with smaller quantities of flour (and cocoa) and milk, use a larger Bundt pan or, as I did, use less of the cake batter.
This looks great i havent cut into it yet but i was just going to say if you want instead of using carmel you can go the mexican way and use cajeta it has a little more of a creamy flavor and instead of evaporated and condensed milk you can use la lechera and evaported just to make it more origial hope its good oh and just wondering do put the cajeta{carmel} straight into the bundt pan or into a seperate? please respond fast!!!!
if i have to pour the cake mixture first how come the flan mixture is on top of the cake mixture that is in the pics above?
Hi Lorna,
The flan mixture sinks to the bottom, thus ending up on the top when you flip the cake.
add the cajeta inside the pan before you bake it but make sure you warm it up in the microwave for 30 seconds then add it to the pan. i sprinkle some choped pecans after i inverted.
I make chocolate Flan all the time and I have never hear of putting a cake into it. I’ll try it and get back with you. My husband makes the regulate Flan. But since I have tried my hand at it, chocolate is the only one for us. But I would say the carmel syrup you speak of is not as sweet as real sugar, so to get the sweetness you should try it with the real sugar glazing.
I just recently stumbled across your blog and am amazed by all of the wonderfully yummy recipes!
This cake is great for entertaining–it is easy and the end result is very impressive! I made mine with Banana cake and drizzled on some extra caramel! It smells, looks and tastes FANTASTIC!
Thanks!
I love the choco-flan cake! Try it with yellow cake mix. yummy too!
i want to try this recipe but with another chocolate cake recipe. the cake recipe i want to use is poured into two 9 inch round cake pans baked at 350 degrees for 35 minutes….so do i still bake it at 350 for 2 hours or do i need to adjust the time+degrees? sorry im a beginner baker!
Just got a comment from someone who didn’t like this cake. Not sure if the person actually tried it, but she said she did and that this flan was not authentic because of the cream cheese. Here’s a tip. This cake is a fun, gimmicky cake. If you’re looking for authentic flan, try a real authentic flan recipe.
Hi Anna
I just made a version of this cake for Canada Day (July 1st)and we loved it. The recipe that I used omitted the fresh milk and it used only 3 eggs but otherwise was the same. It overflowed my Bundt pan but since it was in a water bath it didn’t really matter too much but the next time I will remove some of the batter and the flan to a separate smaller pan-sort of like a taster cake. I liked the ideas of using different flavors of flan and cake that other commentators mentioned. I agree Anna-it’s hard to beat a good cheesecake but this cake has a WOW factor going for it that is a big payoff for a relatively simple preparation.