Chocoflan with burnt sugar caramel - banner image

Chocoflan with burnt sugar caramel

Serves
12 -14
Difficulty

Chocoflan, also called 'el pastel imposible', has two layers - one a moist chocolate cake, the other a creamy flan - so it could also be called 2 in 1 cake as well! What makes it impossible is the fact the the cake and the flan swop places in the bundt tin when cooking. The cake rising to the top and the flan sinking to the bottom. It's a great dessert for a gathering and is appealing to all ages. The burnt sugar caramel is not essential but the bitter sweet taste compliments the sweet flan, an alternative would be using cajeta as a topping.

NB we have used a Nordic Ware pan, inspired by Estaban Castillo, but other bundt pan will do great too.

Additional details

  • Caramel
  • 120g caster sugar (optional)
  • Cake
  • 120g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
  • 250g plain flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 70g cocoa powder
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 100g dark muscovado sugar
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 100ml brewed Mexican espresso
  • 100ml buttermilk or yogurt or whole milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Flan
  • 1 x 300ml whole milk with 100ml double cream or 400g tin evaporated milk
  • 1 x 270g sweetened condensed milk or Mayca Cajeta
  • 120g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • ¼ tsp salt

Additional details

    Pre-heat oven to 160oC

    You will need a 27cm bundt pan and a deep tray to use as a water bath to cook the Chocoflan in.

    Place the bundt tin in the oven to get warm. 

    If you choose to make the caramel, place the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, do not stir but allow it to melt, swirl to incorporate all the sugar and when as dark as you like take off the heat. Remove the bundt from the oven and pour the caramel into the base, swirling to coat. Allow hardening. When cool and hard, grease the inside of the pan with butter, where the caramel has not stuck.

    To make the cake, sift the flour, baking powder and soda, cocoa powder and salt into a bowl, and whisk to combine. In another bowl, with an electric hand beater, cream the butter and the two sugars until pale and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time and incorporate thoroughly. Mix the coffee and the buttermilk (or its subs) together in a jug. Add 1/3 of the flour mix to the butter and 1/2 the buttermilk mix and beat together, add another 1/3 flour mix and the rest of the buttermilk and beat, then fold in the rest of the flour until incorporated and smooth. Pour into the bundt tin and smooth out the top with a spatula.

    To make the flan, put everything except the eggs into a blender or a jug suitable for a stick blender, blend until well combined, then add the eggs and blend for 30 seconds or so. 

    Carefully ladle the flan mix on top of the cake mix. Grease a piece of foil large enough to cover the bundt and loosely tuck it around the sides. Place carefully in the roasting pan and fill with boiling water to 2-3cm up the side of the bundt tin. 

    Bake for 1 hour - test to see if done by inserting a toothpick, it should come out almost clean. Then remove from the water bath, remove foil and allow to cool completely for an hour. Invert onto a dish and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 2 hours. Can be made the day before too. When slicing, remember to wipe the crumbs off the knife after each slice so that the flan remains clean.

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