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Thursday, January 10, 2013

Magic Chocolate Flan Cake, a lighter version



I have to add one dessert before getting to some healthy eats to kick off the new year. Be prepared – this is a scrumptious dessert! Rozanne Mullin of John Day, my sister-in-law, made this cake for a recent birthday party and shared the recipe with me. It's called a "magic" cake because it is made by first pouring the cake batter in the bottom of the bundt pan, topped with the flan mixture, and while it cooks, the cake and flan mixtures "magically" switch places.
She originally found the recipe in a "Cook's Country" magazine and made adjustments to lower the fat content. She used fat-free sweetened condensed milk and 1/3-fat neufchatel cream cheese. It still tasted pretty devilish – like something you shouldn't eat very often! This is definitely not a low cholesterol treat as it calls for eight eggs and four egg yolks, but it serves 16 - so share with family and friends!

Cake ingredients:
1/2 C. caramel sauce, ice cream topping
1/2 C. plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/3 C. cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 C. buttermilk
1/2 C. sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Flan ingredients:
2 (14-oz.) cans sweetened condensed milk, fat-free
2 1/2 C. whole milk
6 oz. cream cheese, (1/3-fat neufchatel cream cheese is optional and works well)
6 large eggs plus 4 large egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions for Cake:
Place oven rack in the center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan. Microwave caramel until easily pourable, 20-30 seconds. Pour to coat the bottom of the pan. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in bowl and set aside. Combine chocolate and butter in large bowl and microwave at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted, 2-4 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 for 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 our warm water into roasting pan until it reaches halfway up side of Bundt pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in cake come out clean and flan registers at 180 degrees, 75-90 minutes. 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.)
Place bottom third of Bundt pan in bowl of hot tap water for 1 minute. Invert onto a completely flat cake platter by placing the platter over top of Bundt pan and gently turn platter and pan upside down. Slowly remove pan, allowing caramel to drizzle over top of cake. Serve.

Serves 16