Hola, Chocoflan! When 2 Favorite Desserts Come Together

Chocoflan is a gorgeous dessert that is — as its name deliciously promises — 1/2 chocolate cake, 1/2 flan. What is not to love about this double delicioso postre?

You’d think that in this recipe from MariCarmen Ortiz Conway, one of our favorite and most gifted Mexican cooks (as well as a renowned tequila expert), would make the chocolate cake part from scratch. Nope! MariCarmen calls for using a chocolate box mix. “Using a chocolate mix is the point,” says MariCarmen. “You can use any kind of box from the store, whatever you like best. I like the devil’s chocolate flavored ones.”

To make chocoflan, here are the four basic steps, says MariCarmen.

Step 1: Buy your favorite brand of chocolate cake mix from the store and prepare the batter.

Step 2: Pour 1 cup of store-bought caramel or 1 cup of homemade dulce de leche into a generously buttered bundt cake or flan mold. Except be sure to use a taller than usual mold because you are going to have a double-size dessert: a full cake batter plus a full flan custard mix.

Step 3: Mix the flan ingredients in the blender, as you normally would, say MariCarmen. Set aside until ready to use.

Step 4: Pour all the cake batter on the bottom layer, over the caramel. Next, pour the entire batch of flan custard on top of the chocolate mix. Don’t worry about the chocolate and flan layers mixing into each other, they will each stay in their own section, naturally. Then bake. Place your mold into a warm water bath in a 350° oven for 1 hour — and felicidades, you have made chocoflan.

Muy importante, warns MariCarmen: Once baked, the chocoflan must cool completely before you attempt to remove it from the cake mold. “This is the secret. Never transfer it hot, or it will break apart. You must wait and it will come out perfectly.”

When she is ready to serve chocoflan, MariCarmen tells Familia Kitchen she always makes a big show of it: “I always ask everyone to pray,” she teases. ”Then we have a moment of silence, and I flip it over in front of them.” Drama aside, it always turns out perfectly, she reports.

“Chocoflan is really pretty. The caramel or dulce de leche slowly rolls down from the top, over the sides. And you have the two contrasting colors, the dark of chocolate and the pale cream of the flan. It is so beautiful,” says MariCarmen.

To learn more about dulce de leche and how to make it, check out this our ”3 Ways to Make Dulce de Leche,” here. And for more crowd-pleasing desserts from our Familia Kitchen community, check out their favorite, sweet family recipes here!

Ready to Make Chocoflan, a Double-Sweet Crowd-Pleaser?

Hola, Chocoflan!—When 2 Favorites Come Together

Recipe by MariCarmen Ortiz Conway

4.1 from 7 votes

Cuisine: Mexican

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

• For the Caramel or Dulce de Leche

• 1 cup caramel, store-bought OR

• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk, to make dulce de leche

• For the Chocolate Cake

• 15.25 oz box chocolate cake mix (store bought)

• 3 eggs

• 1 cup water

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• For the Flan

• 5 eggs

• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk

• 14 oz whole milk (fill the condensed milk can)

• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350° and place a large baking pan filled with a couple of inches of water in the oven. This is for your water bath to make the chocoflan.
• Generously butter your bundt or flan mold. (Be sure it is tall enough to fit the tall chocoflan, with its two layers of chocolate and flan.)
• Add the Caramel or Dulce de Leche
• If you are using store-bought caramel or dulce de leche, pour 1 cup into the bottom of your cake mold.
• If you prefer to make your own dulce de leche from scratch, here are two days: 1) Pour 1 can of condensed milk into a pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes. Let the dulce slightly cool and pour 1 cup into the bottom of your cake mold. 2) Alternately, you can make dulce de leche in the oven. Place 1 can of sweetened condensed milk into a metal bowl with tall sides and cover tightly with tin foil. Place in a heated water bath in a 450° oven for 1 hour. The water should not reach higher than halfway up the sides of the bowl. After 1 hour, check to see if you need to add a bit more hot water to maintain its height at halfway up the bowl. Bake for another hour. Let it slightly cool and pour 1 cup into the bottom of your cake mold.
• Make the Chocolate Cake Mix
• Buy a box of chocolate cake mix from the store. Follow the instructions and make the batter in a bowl, adding eggs, water and vegetable oil. Set aside.
• Make the Flan Mix
• Place the eggs, condensed milk, whole milk, and vanilla extract into a blender. Blend well. Set aside.
• Putting It All Together!
• You’re ready to start layering your chocoflan. First, pour the chocolate batter mix on top of the cooled caramel or dulce de leche. Then, pour the flan mix on top of the chocolate batter mix.
• Place tinfoil over the center hole in the bundt pan or flan mold so that the steam does not sneak into your chocoflan mix. Cover the top of the entire mold with a second tight layer of tinfoil.
• Place the tin foil-covered mold in the hot water bath. Important: Make sure the water does not rise higher than halfway up the mold’s side so that it does not seep into your chocoflan custard-batter mix.
• Bake the chocoflan for 1 hour.
• When it’s done, it will look like it is still wet, but it won’t be. Take out the chocoflan and let it cool — completely. This is important, says MariCarmen.
• When ready to serve, slide a knife around the mold edge to loosen it. Then: Flip the mold onto your serving platter, dramatically, advises MariCarmen. Your guests will ooh and ah. Enjoy chocoflan by itself (no ice cream needed), she says.

Notes

• MariCarmen personally recommends using Duncan Hines Devil’s Food cake mix for the chocolate cake. That is her favorite box mix.
• The topmost layer of the chocoflan is either the caramel or the dulce the leche. What is the difference?, you may wonder. Caramel is made from slow-cooking sugar and water. Dulce de leche is made from slow-cooking sweetened condensed milk, which is sugar and milk. Read all about the difference and find recipes to make both here.