Custard Cake (Flan Cake)
Custard cake or flan cake, no mater what you call it, the fact remains, it is a decadent and oh-so-delicious dessert cake. It’s good after chilling for 3-4 hours, but it is so much better after chilling overnight. When you hear custard cake you’d probably say “oh, custard on top of a cake, that’s easy.” Ummm, not really. See, the cake base has to stay in the bottom while the the custard has to be on top once you turn it upside down. You can’t just bake those two separate things together and expect to come up with a perfect layered cake. There’s a a step in the cake-making process that I learned from Kusina Ni Manang in her choco-flan cake. The eggs need to be separated. Make the cake as is with the yolks, then beat the whites with sugar in a separate bowl, then fold it into the cake mixture to make a chiffon-like cake. The technique here is FOLDING, not stirring or mixing the two components. After that, pour the flan batter into the pan first, then the cake batter has to float on top.
Of course you can make chiffon cake from scratch which would be perfect for this recipe, however, any yellow or white or in this recipe, a vanilla cake mix, would be fine too. Like I said, the trick is separating the egg yolks from the whites. Alright, enough talking, let me show you how it’s done.
Custard Cake (Flan Cake)
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 brick cream cheese (softened)
- 4 eggs
- 1 can evaporated milk
- 1 can condensed milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 quart water
- 1 box of cake mix (yellow or white)
- 3 eggs separated
- 1 1/3 cup water
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/4 cup sugar
- extra oil to brush the bundt pan (or use PAM spray)
Instructions
- For the custard or flan, make my flan with cream cheese recipe (or use your own flan recipe).
- In a pot, combine 1/4 of water and 1 cup of sugar. Bring it to a boil while whisking in medium-high heat. Once it starts to boil, turn down the heat to medium-low and stop whisking. Just let it simmer until golden brown. In a mixer beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add 4 eggs, but one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl after adding each egg. Then add evaporated milk, condense milk and vanilla. Continue to beat until smooth. Transfer this into a huge bowl so you can use the mixer for the cake, unless you have 2 mixers of course. Set the caramel and custard batter aside until everything is ready to pour into the bundt pan.
- NOTE: I didn’t use much of the caramel base which explains the lack of brown glaze on top of this custard cake. It’s up to you if you want more of the caramel glaze.
- For the cake: In a mixer, beat 3 egg yolks, the cake mix, water, and oil until everything is incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy then add the sugar. Continue to beat until stiff, almost like the meringue consistency.
- FOLD IN(refer to Notes below on folding technique) the egg whites batter into the cake batter. Once done folding, the result should be thinner than the usual cake batter.
- Preheat the oven to 325°.
- Lightly brush the bundt pan with a little bit of oil, or spray it with PAM. Pour a little bit of the caramel glaze in the bottom. Pour the custard batter next. Then the cake batter. DO NOT MIX OR STIR the two components together. There might be leftover cake batter. Pour it in another pan to bake or discard, up to you. Pour water into a huge roasting pan. Carefully place the bundt pan into the roasting pan. Transfer the pan into the oven to bake for 45 minutes. Once done baking, let the cake completely cool in a rack, then finish chilling in the freezer for 3-4 hours.
- When ready to serve, carefully run a butter knife in the edge of the bundt pan then flip it on top of a cake stand or platter big enough for the cake to fit. If you have leftover caramel glaze, pour it on top of the custard. If not, don’t worry about it.
Make custard cake or flan cake soon coz I promise you THIS will haunt you until you do,
