#FlanFriday: Mango Chipotle Flan Cake

This right here deserves every gasp you’re about to give it. I woke up this morning extremely anxious to get this post up. It’s been weeks, maybe months,  since I’ve shared a new POW flavored custard with you but I have been in the lab creating old and new ones for clients and different events. My latest was a coconut Frangelico combo which left grown men’s mouths wide open, eyes begging for clarity and a silent moment trying to understand what they’d just experienced. No lie. It was amazing. In that same situation, I converted a non-believer of flan into a new lover. So in all of my humble modesty, I share this creation born out of bigger things happening in my life at the moment,  but with much more wow factor than the Frangelico one. That one was divine but this one is just intoxicatingly perfect.

And it was completely inspired by the chipotle maple glaze I made for the grilled fruit skewers on the TODAY show. After I made the sauce and turned it in for approval, I ended up with a good amount of  chipotle in adobo sauce lying around.  Since it’s not something I typically use in my cooking, I wanted to incorporate it before losing my mind convincing my family the heat was tolerable as long as I seeded it. I didn’t even bother going down that route so I just went for my initial idea… to make another spicy flan. The habanero ricotta one from sometime last year turned to be wildly accepted in this non-heat tolerating home, so I knew I’d be safe working with this one. But I’d had to temper the heat. And so the lovely mangoes a sweet friend overnighted from her own mango tress in Florida would do the trick.

The combination of sweet and spicy always works. It’s part of food science. It’s just a matter of figuring out which of each marry best. I wasn’t surprised the smokey chipotle, which I didn’t seed at all, blended ever so lovely with the mango. I was a bit concerned about not seeding it, but the superb sweetness of the fruit cut it just right. In fact, so much I ended up adding a conservative teaspoon of the adobo sauce.

But here’s the kicker. I made a cake flan pots. I wanted to experiment with splitting up the flavors and thought a two-part dessert would be the avenue. Chipotle sauce in the cake, mango purée in the custard. Genius if I say so ever so modestly. I made a bit of that chipotle glaze and drizzled it over the pots. So incredibly perfect.

I’m sure you’re familiar with flan cakes… mostly done in Mexican homes from what I’ve seen. It’s something I never saw growing up and nothing my own mother has ever tried, so I’ve always been intrigued. But I didn’t want just any bundt cake flan. My purpose in experimenting was to go small and delicate. Two big baked goods in one can be tricky so my thought was the  bundt cake was too much. At least for what I was doing — hosting a private shindig with some special friends. These were apropos. If it were for the family get-together, I’d be all over a larger size.

But these are just cuter. And daintier. And sexier. And it’s always about making food sexy. Well, almost.

So that’s why I’m still celebrating the TODAY show…. perhaps by myself at this point. But it’s because I’ve been using this fine piece of equipment to whip up some lovely creations. And because I finally had a chance to look at all 400 pictures and 10 mini videos my parents took.  And because it was only just 6 or so days ago I had 20 solid minutes of downtime to watch the online segment. But even that was work. I always review tape to see how I can improve my demos — slow down my speaking pace; be consistent when talking about cooking time; don’t be redundant if not necessary… those kinds of things.

There is life in cooking and feeding others from your heart! 

Oh, and make this flan cake! You’ll LOVE it.

HAPPY #FLANFRIDAY!

Eat well, love unapologetically, pray with true intention, and take care of yourself.

Follow the sexy & delicious fun on

TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | GOOGLE+ |YOUTUBE

Don't forget to check out my debut cookbook!

Enjoy

MANGO CHIPOTLE FLAN CAKE w/CHIPOTLE MAPLE GLAZE

For Cake

Ingredients:

•  1.5 cup whole fat buttermilk, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg white, at room temperature
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2/5 cups cake flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 2/3 cup (125 grams) sugar
• 1- 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 6 pieces
• 4 Tbsp. chipotle adobo (seed chipotles); or 6 Tbps. chipotle hot sauce

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, egg whites, vanilla, and chipotle adobo (or hot sauce). Add flour, baking powder, salt, and dark brown sugar to stand mixer and whisk on slow-medium. Lower speed to medium and individually add pieces of butter until your dry goods started clumping into small pieces. Don’t worry about that texture. It’s normal. Add in 3/4 milk mixture and beat on medium speed for one minute. Without turning off mixer, add the remainder of the milk mixture and beat on medium for an additional minute. You will have a silky smooth and creamy batter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and beat for 20 more seconds.

For Flan

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 whole eggs, whisked
• 1- 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• 3/4 cup mango juice (purée or fresh squeezed from mango)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup mango, cubed
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Method:

Whisk eggs in a medium sized bowl. Add and combine sweetened condensed and regular milk, mango juice or purée, and vanilla extract. Set aside.

Add sugar to medium non-stick skillet, stirring constantly, until liquified and golden caramel-coloured. Do not burn. When sugar is fully dissolved into caramel, carefully but quickly pour and evenly coat bundt mold with caramel. Let sit for two minutes until sugar sets.

Pour cake batter into cake mold and let evenly set. Then pour flan mixture over top. Flan mixture will sink to bottom of mold.

Baking the Flan Cake

Preheat oven to 350F. Fill large catering or pan with water, or baño de Maria, about 3″ full. Cover cake pan with aluminum foil and gently place in water filled pan. Bake for one hour or until cake and flan are cooked. Check for doneness with toothpick.  Once the flan is fully cooked, immediately low heat and let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cake mold baño de Maria and discard excess water from pan.

Do not remove cake from pan. Refrigerate for 7-9 hours or overnight. To serve, loosen the sides of the cake flan all the way around using a butter knife. Take a large plate, place upside down on top of flan and flip!  Garnish with cubed mango as desired. Drizzle chipotle maple glaze all over.

Serves up to 12.

Chipotle Maple Glaze 

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chipotle sauce or chipotle Tabasco sauce
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup orange juice

Method:

In small bowl, whisk all ingredients until well-blended.