Magic Chocolate Flan Cake

I was browsing through my latest issue of Cook’s Country magazine and came across a recipe with three of my favorite things: caramel, chocolate and cream cheese. AND it called for cocoa, so I knew this was the recipe I wanted to try for November’s challenge.

It’s a layer of chocolate cake, topped with flan and dripping in caramel. The cool part is when it goes in the oven the chocolate cake layer and flan layer switch places, hence the magic.

I know I preached thinking outside of the {dessert} box when using cocoa as an ingredient, but I couldn’t resist this! It was a simple recipe and really delicious - I love anything swimming in caramel. Plus who can resist magic?

MAGIC CHOCOLATE FLAN CAKE
Recipe from Cook's Country, Serves 16

CAKE
½ cup caramel sauce (I used Trader Joe’s salted caramel sauce and had a jar of Fran’s caramel sauce to drizzle on top when serving)
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FLAN
2 (14-ounce cans) sweetened condensed milk
2 ½ cups whole milk
6 ounces cream cheese
6 large eggs plus 4 large yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan. Microwave caramel until easily pourable, about 30 seconds. Pour into pan to coat bottom. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in bowl; set aside. Combine chocolate and butter in large bowl and microwave at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, 2 to 4 minutes. Whisk buttermilk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla into chocolate mixture until incorporated. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Pour batter over caramel in prepared pan.

2. FOR THE FLAN: Process all ingredients in blender until smooth, about 1 minute. Gently pour flan over cake batter in Bundt pan and place pan in large roasting pan. Place roasting pan on oven rack and pour warm water into roasting pan until it reaches halfway up side of Bundt pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean and flan resisters 180 degrees, 75 to 90 minutes (I did 75 minutes and next time would try a little less). Transfer Bundt pan to wire rack. Let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours, then refrigerate until set, at least 8 hours. (Remove roasting pan from oven once water has cooled.)

3. Place bottom third of Bundt pan in bowl of hot tap water for 1 minute. Invert completely flat cake plate, place platter over top of Bundt plan, and gently turn platter and pan upside down. Slowly remove pan, allowing caramel to drizzle over top of cake. Serve with extra caramel sauce drizzled over the top.