The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

I was really wanting to try this cake and what better time than when it is my turn for coffee hour at church. But it was not without drama!! This is a layered cake, caramel, flan, and chocolate.

As with most recipes, this has several versions. This one comes from All Recipes.com.

Let me tell you all that I did wrong so you don't make the same mistakes. First, my Bundt pan was too small. I think the older ones were larger so that created its own drama. Second, I substituted Smucker's caramel, because who has Cajeta sitting on the shelf. It must be a thicker sauce. And I used a half cup (misread it) instead of a quarter cup. That did not create good results. Last but not least, it says to use a shallow pan for the water bath to cover about a third of the Bundt pan. That is an oxymoron. There is not enough edge to hold that much water (sigh)

So I got the water bath heating up, like it said, put the "too much" caramel in the bottom of the Bundt pan, added the cake mixture, made the flan mixture, put the pan into the hot bath and started to pour the flan on top while in the oven. I got about half of it on top of the cake, then it poured over into the hot water bath, cooling it. I quickly got 2 small glass Pyrex dishes to put the rest of the flan in, and put those into the water bath. In for a penny, in for a pound, was what I was thinking.

It cooked up well. The flan layer goes to the bottom, the cake rises to the top, but because my pan was smaller, it raised over the center tube, so I had to cut out (and eat) some cake to get to it

It says to cool for an hour. Don't cheat like I did. I think I waited for maybe 30, had to do some creative edging so the cake would release, turned it upside down and voila, all intact, but a bit of a caramel, gooey mess It still was impressive with its layers, tho, and everyone thought it was wonderful!!

I'll make it again. I've got this!!

INGREDIENTS:

¼ c. cajeta, sweetened caramelized goat's milk syrup.

Cake

1 ½ c. all purpose flour

6 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ c. butter + 2 ½ Tbsp, softened

1 c. white sugar

1 egg

2 Tbsp strong brewed coffee

1 c. whole milk

Flan

2 ½ c. evaporated milk

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the base and sides of a 10 inch tube pan. Dust slightly with flour, tap to remove excess.

Fill a shallow baking pan with enough water to come 1/3 of the way up the sides of the tube pan. Place water bath in the oven to warm p while it is preheating.

Heat caramel sauce in a microwavable bowl, for about a minute. Pour into prepared tube pan, covering the base completely.

Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder together in a bowl.

Beat ½ cup plus 2 ½ tablespoons butter in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add sugar, beat until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 egg and coffee. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk, mixing well between additions. Pour cake batter evenly over caramel in the tube pan.

Combine evaporated milk, condensed milk, 4 eggs, and vanilla extract in the bowl of a food processor, blend until smooth. Pour over cake batter through a fine sieve.

Bake in the water bath in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the chocolate cake comes out clean, about an hour.

Let cake cool, about 1 hour. Carefully run a thin knife around the edges to loosen the cake. Cover with a serving plate and flip onto the plate.

MY NOTES:

I didn't pour the flan mixture through a fine sieve 

ENJOY!!! I know you will like it!!