Chocoflan – Immaculate Bites

What Makes Chocoflan So Special?

Cake and flan go beautifully together, but I think what really makes chocoflan special is the cajeta. Cajeta is the Mexican version of caramel sauce. It’s a lovely sticky sauce made by caramelizing goat’s milk and sugar until it turns into a thick, rich brown sauce. If you’re familiar with dulce de leche made with cow’s milk, which I’m also obsessed with 🤫, it’s similar as far as color and texture go. Cajeta is literally and figuratively the icing on this cake, and it is uh-mazing!

Recipe Ingredients

1. Chocolate Cake – For the cake half of this dessert, you’ll need all the basic cake ingredients plus cocoa powder, cinnamon, hot coffee, buttermilk, and chopped pecans or nuts of your choice. These ingredients make for a rich chocolate cake that is just divine.
2. Flan – For the flan half, you’ll need sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream cheese, eggs, and vanilla extract. So yum!
3. Cajeta – You can buy ready-made cajeta at your local Mexican store or make it yourself. If you want homemade cajeta, you’ll need goat’s milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. You can also substitute regular caramel sauce for cajeta if you aren’t a fan of goat’s milk.

How to Make Chocoflan

Preparation

• Prep the Pan – Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt or tube pan, or use a baking spray instead.
• Add Cajeta – Then pour the cajeta into the bottom of the pan and set it aside.

Make the Cake Batter

• Cream the Butter and Sugar – Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar at a medium to high speed until it’s fluffy and starting to look white, 4-5 minutes. (Photos 1-2)
• Add Eggs – Stir in the eggs, one at a time, beating the mixture well between each addition. (Photos 3-4)
• Dry Ingredients – Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon into the batter, and then add vanilla extract. (Photos 5-6)
• Wet Ingredients – Then pour in the hot coffee and mix well. Finally, pour in the buttermilk. Stir until everything is thoroughly combined, and scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl. (Photos 7-8)

Make the Flan

• Combine – In a blender, combine all the flan ingredients: condensed and evaporated milk, cream cheese, eggs, and vanilla extract. (Photo 1)
• Blend – Pulse on high for 30 seconds or until all the ingredients are combined. (Photo 2)

Assemble It All

• Chocolate Cake – Spoon the chocolate cake batter into the Bundt pan with cajeta and spread it evenly. (Photos 1-3)
• Flan – Carefully pour the flan mixture over the chocolate cake batter forming a layer of cake and a layer of flan. Do not be alarmed if the cake mixes together a little. It will separate when it bakes. (Photos 4-6)
• Cover – Then, cover the Bundt pan with foil paper. Place the cake tin on a roasting pan and then carefully pour about 1-inch of hot water into the pan.
• Bake – Carefully transfer the roasting pan into the oven, and bake for an hour, or until the surface of the cake is firm to touch or an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool – Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool to room temperature. Chill the flan in an airtight container in the refrigerator until the flan firms up. It will take a couple of hours.
• Flip – Once chilled, place a large pan or serving platter over the Bundt pan, grasp the two tightly together, jiggle a little and flip it over, so the chocoflan comes out onto the serving platter. Scrape any remaining sauce from the bottom of the pan and spread it on the cake.
• Serve – Top with more Cajeta and garnish with chopped pecans, if desired.

Recipe Variations

1. Change up the cake batter. It won’t really be chocoflan if you don’t use chocolate cake, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use any cake batter you like! So how does spicyflan with spice cake batter sound?
2. Vary the flan flavors. You can go with this creamy cream cheese flan, or you could try a flavored flan, like coconut or rum and ginger flan. Mmm! 😋
3. Swap out the cajeta. Instead of cajeta, try dulce de leche or regular ol’ caramel sauce. 🤎

Tips and Tricks

1. Grease the pan thoroughly. Be sure to get into every single nook and cranny when you grease your pan, even if you are working with a nonstick Bundt pan. Oil or melted butter will work great for this.
2. Remember to preheat the oven. Getting the temperatures and timing right is key to this recipe, so don’t forget to preheat your oven before you begin whipping the chocolate cake batter.
3. Allow the cake plenty of time to cool. Don’t remove the cake from the pan fresh out of the oven; otherwise, it could tear and fall apart. I repeat, don’t do it! If the Bundt pan is still warm to the touch, then it is too soon to remove the cake.
4. Homemade cajeta is a combination of goat’s milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Slowly simmer them on the stove until it thickens and turns into a caramel. You can adjust the quantities to your liking.

Make-Ahead Instructions

Chocoflan is actually best made ahead of time since it needs time to bake and then chill. You can make it three days in advance and store it in the fridge until you are ready to serve it.

Serving and Storage Instructions

Serve chocoflan chilled and drizzled with plenty of cajeta sauce (or another sauce of your choice).

Store any leftover flan in the fridge in an airtight container, so it doesn’t pick up any strange flavors from the fridge air. It should stay good for 3-5 days.

FAQs

What Goes With Chocoflan

Try chocoflan with a cup of coffee or ginger tea. I love desserts with something hot to drink, so if you’re feeling fancy, you could even make a chai tea latte to go with it.

You could also get a little more elaborate with decorations and serve this cake with candied pecans, homemade whipped cream, and more caramel sauce. Chocoflan tastes amazing with all of the above.

More Fancy Dessert Recipes to Try

Conclusion

Sure, chocoflan takes a little time to make, but it is totally worth it. You’ll have a gorgeous dessert that tastes so good you’ll give yourself a little pat on the back. Have you tried this amazing recipe yet? Please leave me a recipe review when you do. 😉

Watch How to Make It

This blog post was originally published in September 2020 and has been updated with additional tips.