You guys. They had us in the first half, not gunna lie. I did not want to admit how much of a hard time this recipe gave me but that’s what the point of this blog is. To show you my struggles and how I ended up fixing everything. If it wasn’t one thing it was another, and the weird part was, the recipe never changed. I just over mixed the batter, left it baking in the oven for too long and I was so close to just posting pictures of the chocoflan my mom made and call it a day. But I am not a quitter! Even if I wanted to, I’m not allowed to (Mexican daughter problems). The first attempt, the chocolate cake split for whatever reason and the flan did not set correctly. Chocoflan 1, Aimee 0. Second time, the chocolate cake was so dense it was not fun to eat and I’m not sure what caused it to happen. Chocoflan 2, Aimee 0. The photos you see here are from my final attempt. With some more precise measurements and a little prayer, they came out so good. Just another example of perseverance and learning it’s ok to cry if you mess up (more than once). Anyway, enough of my failures. Here is the procedure for my ONE success.
For the Caramel
- ¼ cup of sugar
- Water
- Lime juice
For the Flan
- 7 ounces of sweetened condensed milk
- 6 ounces of evaporated milk
- 2 ounces of cream cheese
- 2 eggs
- ½ of vanilla extract
For the Cake
- 5 tablespoons of butter
- ½ cup of sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 ¼ cups of flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup of cocoa powder
- ½ of butter milk
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease your containers with cooking spray or butter. I used 7 oz oven safe dishes.
For the Caramel sauce
- In a saucepan, add your sugar and add a teaspoon of water just to get the sugar to stick together. Add a teaspoon of lime juice to prevent the sugar from crystallizing. Leave it on medium heat until the sugar starts to bubble and turn brown. Using a wooden spoon, move the sugar around to get an even caramel color. Once there is a uniform toasty brown color, add a tablespoon of butter and tablespoon of milk to the sugar and stir until combined. Pour the sauce into your dishes and set aside.
For the Cake
- Add the butter and sugar to a bowl and using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat until the butter is light and fluffy. Then add your egg.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cocoa.
- Add ½ of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix for a few seconds until combined. Add half of the buttermilk and the rest of the dry ingredients then add the rest of the buttermilk. Only mix until everything is evenly incorporated. DO NOT OVER MIX, always make sure to watch the batter.
For the Flan
- In a blender, combine the evaporated milk, condensed milk, cream cheese, eggs, and vanilla. Blend on high for 30 seconds.
- Scoop the cake batter into the prepared dishes a little less than halfway up. Slowly pour the flan mixture over the cake batter. Place the dishes into a larger baking pan and pour about an inch of hot water to the pan. Cover in foil and carefully slide into the middle rack of the oven.
- Bake for about 40 min or until the cake has risen to the top and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- When they are ready, remove from the water and let cool to room temperature. This takes about an hour. (Or you can put them in the freezer like I did for 20 min or so)
- When you are ready to serve, run a butter knife around the edges of the chocoflan and carefully flip onto a plate, serve with fruit on top as a garnish!
If the cake seems to be floating when you first take it out of the oven, no worries. That is normal, and they will slowly deflate when they start to cool down.
Even though this was a tough one, the end result was worth it and super tasty. I chose to bake them in small containers because they are easy to take to work and it is less tempting than eating endless pieces of a larger cake. Hope you guys learned something new and thanks for checking in!
