Unmolded this☝️before chilling it completely. Notice the sunken area on the upper left.
Lesson learned: Be patient! Chill it overnight before unmolding. 😊
ChocoFlan! This is a rich, delicious chocolate cake with a beautiful layer of creamy flan sitting on top.
I first had this over a decade ago when my Cuban coworker at UCLA brought it for a potluck. It still amazes me how the layers switch when baking. You get a bit of yummy chocolate cake, a thick, creamy flan, all topped with caramelized sugar syrup…what more could you ask for?
This cake is easy to make and truly beautiful that you can bring it to any gathering and it’s sure to wow everyone lucky enough to have a slice…or two!
You’ll need a 12-cup bundt pan to make this as it rises almost to the top when baked. Most bundt pans I own have a capacity of 10 cups, so be sure to check your pan!
If you only have the 10 cup mold, set some of the cake batter aside for 2-3 cupcakes, or make a couple of small individual Choco flans in a ramekin with some of the syrup, flan, and cake mixture. The baking pan with water will also catch any overflow batter, so you should be fine.
The flan layer on this cake is thick, just the way I like it. You’ll get a good proportion of flan to chocolate cake in every bite, I promise!
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*I recently found a 6-cup bundt pan in Target made by Nordicware (https://www.target.com/p/nordic-ware-6-cup-formed-bundt-pan-navy/-/A-76431260#lnk=sametab) and I got 2 of course! If you have these smaller pans, you can split the caramel, flan, and cake batter between the 2 little bundt pans and have 2 Chocoflans – one to eat now and another for later, or to share!
Ingredients:
For the Caramel:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
For the Flan:
1 can (12oz) evaporated milk
1 can (14oz) condensed milk
4 oz cream cheese (half a bar)
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Cake:
1 box (15.25oz) devil’s food cake mix
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs, separated*
1 cup water
Equipment:
1 12-cup bundt pan (or 2 6-cup bundt pans)
Saucepan
Blender
Large baking dish
Bowls
Hand mixer
Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Spray your bundt pan/s with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
Caramelized sugar:
3. Pour sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until deep brown, about 10-15 minutes. Keep swirling the pan when it starts to turn golden and remove from heat right before it reaches the color you want as it’ll keep cooking. You don’t want to burn this.
4. Using heavy oven gloves, immediately pour into prepared pan/s. Set aside.
Flan:
5. Pour all flan ingredients into a blender and pulse until well mixed.
6. Pour over caramel layer.
7. Place the bundt pan/s in a large baking dish. Fill baking dish with water halfway up the bundt pan. We are steam baking this, baine marie style!
8. Now carefully place the entire set up in the middle rack of your preheated oven. Close the oven and set your timer to 20 minutes.
9. In the meantime, prepare your Cake layer:
10. In a bowl, beat together devil’s food cake mix, oil, egg yolks, and water until blended. Set aside.
11. Grab another bowl that it is clean, dry, no traces of oil or grease, or any speck of egg yolks. Wash and clean your beaters and dry them, too. Then beat egg whites in the bowl using clean beaters until soft peaks form. Carefully fold in 1/3 into the cake mixture until mixed. Fold in another 1/3, mix and then add in the last 1/3. Fold in until no more traces of the egg white can be seen.
*If you are crunched for time, you can also just place ALL the cake ingredients in a bowl and beat for about 2 minutes on medium to high speed. The cake won’t be as light, but I’m quite sure no one will notice!*
12. Carefully remove the pan from the oven after 20 minutes.
13. Slowly pour the cake mixture over the flan. Cover with foil, lower the oven temperature to 350F, and bake for 55 minutes more, or until cake is fully baked. Check if cake is done by inserting a skewer in the middle of the cake, it should come out clean.
14. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cover and chill overnight before unmolding.
15. Place a plate on top of the bundt pan and carefully invert the whole thing. You would hear/feel the cake drop onto the plate. Carefully remove the bundt pan and serve the cake!
*You might want to fill the bundt pan with water now to facilitate removing the caramel that is stuck on the bottom. It will dissolve on it’s own, no need to scrub, but it will need time, like a day or two!*