Have you ever seen a recipe in a cookbook, online, or in a magazine that made you wanted to drop everything and run to the grocery store to get the necessary ingredients? That is how I felt about this recipe when I saw it in December. I found it in my sister's copy of "Cooks Country" and although we had tons of Christmas cookies to enjoy, I was "this close" to making this too. (I used my Grandma's Christmas birthday as an excuse to make a cake, but the idea was vetoed by the saner members of my family given the landslide of sweets occupying every corner of the kitchen.) Oh, did I mention that I now have a subscription to "Cooks Country"? It has the best comfort food recipes ever!
Anyways, I finally got a chance to make this last week for the yearly work party. It turned out so beautifully that I wanted to put a sign next to it that said "Christy made this." Oh, and it tasted great too! I mean, how could custard, caramel, and chocolate be wrong? Now, it might look complicated, but I thought this was one of the simplier things I've made in the past few months. Easy button!
Oh, and if you're asking why this is called "magic", it's because you pour the chocolate layer in the bottom and the flan atop. The layers "magically" switch as the cake bakes. Science!
Serves 16
Ingredients - cake
½ cup caramel sauce½ 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
Ingredients - flan
2 (14-ounce cans) sweetened condensed milk2 ½ cups whole milk
6 ounces cream cheese
6 large eggs plus 4 large yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions (cake): Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan. (Measure if you are unsure. Mine was more like 10 cups and I had to sacrifice 2 cups of flan.) 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.
Directions (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.) (I didn't realize I needed to cool this so long and needed it to be good to go 2 hours after it came out of the oven. I let it sit for 10 minutes and then plunged it into a bowl of ice, replacing the ice twice. Worked perfectly, whew!)
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.
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