Hey! You've got to hide your FLAN away!

So, this is my second attempt at this cake. The first attempt, while a noble effort, was for my little sister’s 20th birthday. I tried to make it gluten free and I tried to make it delicious and the truth is – it was edible, but not finger licking good…It was dry and too much cake and not what I was going for. My sister’s pretty special and I wanted to honor her with a pretty special cake, I just should have worked out the kinks beforehand.

The hang up on this cake is probably that I kind of had to make it up. In February of 2009, I went on vacation to visit my favorite foreign country in the entire world, Panama. There we were at a celebration that had a cake called Flan Escondido, translation: Hidden Flan. It was two layers of cake with a sandwich of flan in between. I had never thought to combine the two, but it turned out to be the most delicious piece of dessert I have eaten, quite possibly, ever. However, there was no recipe. So I tried and failed. Ever since I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how to make it better and how it should turn out, but I haven’t had a reason to bake it.

I should have known that this cake was going to be complicated; everything with the little one has some sort of excitement. She’s that cool. No matter what, there’s something about my little sister that makes me always want to protect her, no matter how much we’re fighting or how much we don’t agree. Even if we don’t “get” each other, we still “get” each other. Now that we’re older we share an inexplicable love for 80’s music, a love/hate relationship with the idea of bangs, and a deeper, more tolerant understanding of each other. (Well that last one we try to do, not always successfully.) Do we still argue and disagree – of course, we’re normal sisters. But even though I picture her at 20 now, I still kind of picture her at 5 playing Lalabelle’s Beauty Salon, making me over and doing my crazy make up. If I’ve learned anything in the last 20 years it’s to never underestimate the expectations you put on yourself for the sake of your family. So I’ve been dreaming of making this cake better and better.

And then my friend Amanda had a birthday.

So I tried again.

And she appreciates the innovative and interesting. (After all, it was on her request that I resurrected the Bacon cake.)

Much to my surprise, it turned out delicious! And I know I will be making it again, next time for my sissy.

Flan Escondido AKA Hidden Flan

For the Flan:
Mami’s Flan (This is my mom’s flan recipe, it took some deciphering and adding since basically she handed it to me and it was just measurements and I had no idea what to do.) I doubled her recipe so that I could make two thin flan layers. This is the doubled recipe:
Ingredients:
2/3 cup + ½ cup Sugar
2 oz Water
2 – 12oz can Evaporated Milk
4 Eggs
2 teaspoon Vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine 2/3 cup of Sugar and 2 oz of Water in a skillet. Set over low heat and caramelize the sugar. (It will get thick and a light brown color.) Be careful not to burn it! Do not stir the sugar and water combo, just swirl the pan over the flame so that it cooks evenly. (You can turn the heat up a little bit, just be careful that it doesn’t burn.) Quickly pour into 2 - 9” circular baking pans (each pan should get about half) and turn it to coat the bottom of the pan. If the caramel cools too quickly before you are able to coat the bottom of the pan. Hold it above the flame on your stovetop to liquefy the caramel again and coat the pan.

Whisk together the evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla, and sugar. Divide the mixture in half and pour the mixture into the prepared pans with the caramelized sugar on the bottom. Set the pans with your flan mixture inside a bigger pan. Fill the bigger pan with boiling water to a depth of 1”.

Bake for 45 minutes. To know that the flan is done, insert a knife ½ way into the center of the cake, it should come out clean. Let the flan cool completely before attempting to remove from the pan. (You can even chill it.) Once cool, carefully run a knife around the outside of the pan to loosen the sides of the flan. Invert onto two separate platters. Make sure they’re not shallow platters because there is caramel sauce that will spill out.


For the cake:

Magnolia Bakery's Traditional Vanilla Birthday Cake
(Adapted from Allysa Torey and Jennifer Appel's fantastic cookbook.)

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temp
1 ½ cups self rising flour
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour 3 – 9” round pans. Cover the bottom of the three pans with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, mix the flours together.
In a separate bowl, combine the milk with vanilla.
In the large bowl of the mixer, cream the butter until smooth.
Gradually add the sugar mixture to the butter and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time to the butter/sugar mixture, beating each egg until combined.
Add the flour in four parts alternating with the milk/vanilla extract combo. After each addition, beat until combined, before you add the next set of ingredients.
Divide the batter among the three cake pans. Bake 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. It may take a little longer to cook because there are three rounds.

Cool completely before assembling.

Brown Sugar Whipped Cream Frosting
Ingredients:
1 cup Heavy Cream
1/3 cup Sour Cream
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Beat all the ingredients together until stiff peaks form.

Assembly:
Place one layer of vanilla cake on the serving platter, top down. Use a fork to puncture holes all over the side of the cake that’s facing up. Carefully slide the flan onto the top of the cake. (Even if the flan breaks a little bit, because it’s delicate, it’s ok – you can’t really see it.) Pour the caramel sauce slowly over the cake and flan and let it soak in. Put a light layer of frosting on top of the flan. Before placing the second layer of cake on, using a fork, puncture holes in both the top and bottom sides of the cake. Place the second layer of cake on top of the flan. With the remaining caramel sauce, gently pour it over the top of the cake. Carefully slide the second flan on top of the cake. Pour the caramel sauce slowly over the cake and flan and let it soak in. Put a light layer of frosting on top of the flan. Using a fork, puncture holes in the top and bottom of the third layer cake. Place the cake on top of the second flan. Pour the remaining caramel over the top of the cake slowly so it soaks in. Frost the top and sides of the cake with Brown Sugar Whipped Cream.

This cake was delicious! There was something about the layering of flavors and the different textures that made it work perfectly together. Also, the way the caramel soaked into the cake layers gave it a very moist, sweet, slightly soggy taste. The cake to flan ratio was spot on.