Pumpkin Flan (Chocoflan)
Hello friends! Today’s post is sponsored by Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk! And we bring a fantastic dessert to compliment your holidays: Pumpkin Flan! Chocolate cake on the bottom, Pumpkin Flan on top, with a rich caramel sauce to finish! Also known as Chocoflan or Magic Cake!
This Pumpkin Flan is actually incredibly easy to make! I will show you all the steps on the video, and on the pictures below!
The coolest thing about this recipe is that when you put the batters in the pan, the chocolate cake batter goes on the bottom of the bundt pan, and the pumpkin flan batter goes on top.
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As the flan bakes in the oven, the batters invert, and when you flip the cake onto the plate, the pumpkin flan will be on top, and the chocolate cake on the bottom.
Hence the name Magic Cake.
This cake is also known as Chocoflan in Latin America, or Pudim Cake in Brazil. And this Pumpkin Flan version takes it to the next level!
So without further ado, let’s get to it!
How to make Chocolate Pumpkin Flan?
Let’s start by greasing a bundt pan with shortening, and sprinkling it with sugar. Make sure to grease each nuke and cranny of the pan, specially if you are working with a pan that has waves like mine. You don’t want your beautiful Pumpkin Flan to get stuck there.
Once the pan is greased, you will make the caramel for the pan. Which is very simple and quick. Simply melt some sugar on a small saucepan until it browns, then add some water, re-heat to melt any sugar that may have crystallized, and pour it onto the bottom of the bundt pan! It’s that easy!
- Here we have our sugar in the pan.
- The caramel all ready, after the water has been added and re-melted.
- Greased and sugared bundt pan.
- The beautiful caramel poured on the bottom of the bundt pan.
At this point, I like to place the pan in the fridge so the caramel has a chance to cool down a bit. Not necessary, just something I like to do.
Next up, make the chocolate cake batter, which is a pretty straight forward recipe. Set it aside, and then make the Pumpkin Flan.
The Pumpkin Flan batter is very easy and simple to make!
Add all of the ingredients to the blender, blend, and pour!
These are the ingredients you will use to make the Pumpkin Flan.
It really doesn’t get much easier than that!
Now it’s time to assemble!
First, spread the chocolate cake batter on the bottom of the pan. Then pour the Pumpkin Flan on top. And voila, you’re ready to bake your flan!
And yes, while this post is sponsored by Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk, this has been my favorite condensed milk brand since I moved to the states in 2011.
We use a LOT of condensed milk in our baking in Brazil, and I couldn’t find my favorite Brazilian condensed milk brand anywhere besides in Brazilian grocery stores, which I don’t have any nearby.
Enters Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk! It’s for sure the best condensed milk out there, either to make Dulce de leche (the only brand that doesn’t crystallize the dulce de leche!), or use in Brigadeiros (popular brazilian truffles made with condensed milk), or any other recipes! I’ll have a link to my favorite condensed milk recipes at the bottom of the post! Make sure to check them out, since I have tons of condensed milk recipes on my blog!
This Pumpkin Flan recipe is the perfect dessert for your holiday table! Everyone will love it! It’s super easy to make, you can totally make it ahead, since it will keep well in the fridge for a few days! So practical and sure to please all of your guests, friends, family, neighbors!
Tips on how to make this Pumpkin Flan
- Make sure to grease the bundt pan really well!
- Use a water bath! Don’t just place the flan in the oven, make sure you bake it on top of a pan with some water on the bottom! That’s the best way to bake custard without scorching it, and without having the outside become hard, the middle uncooked.
- Cover the pan with foil midway baking! Once the cake has floated to the top and is set, you should cover the pan with foil, so the cake doesn’t over bake. The reason why I don’t cover it with foil from the beginning, is that the cake sometimes may rise quite a bit in the initial phase of baking and stick to the foil.
- For the chocolate cake batter, I used to make it with just butter, now I mix butter and oil. You’re welcome to use all butter if you wish, but the chocolate cake will bake for quite a bit, so sometimes it has the tendency of getting dry (specially if you don’t cover it with foil halfway through baking), but the oil has seemed to have solved this issue for good! Take my word, I’ve baked 3 of these Pumpkin Flans in the past 2 weeks (for the sake of recipe tasting ahem!)
- The best way to tell if the flan is baked is to see if the cake is coming off from the sides of the pan. Baking time may take up to 90 minutes depending on your oven.
- Let the Pumpkin Flan chill in the fridge overnight before turning it onto a plate.
- On the next day, place the bundt pan in a large pan with warm water for a few minutes to help the caramel from the bottom loosen up before turning the cake onto a plate.
- Give the bundt pan a little wiggle, if the flan cake jiggles in there, you’re good to go!
Phew! Those were lots of tips! With these tips, my instructions below, the video, and Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk, there’s no way this won’t be the most loved dessert of your holiday festivities!
Here are some more desserts with condensed milk from Pies and Tacos for you to check out! (I had way too many, so just had to choose a few! To see all of them, type condensed milk on the search bar!)
- Dulce de Leche Cupcakes
- Key Lime Pie Cake
- Chocolate Flan
- Dulce de Leche Cake
- Brigadeiro Cupcakes
- Flan Cake
- Dulce de Leche Bars
- Flan Cupcakes
- Chocolate Strawberry Cake
- Key Lime Brigadeiros
Thanks for reading my blog! If you make this recipe, make sure to tag me on instagram @piesandtacos because I simply adore seeing your creations!
Pumpkin Flan
Ingredients
Caramel
- 1 cup granulated sugar 200 grams, 7 oz
- 1/2 cup water room temperature 118 ml
Chocolate Cake
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 191 grams, 6.75 oz
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 60 grams, 2.1 oz
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted 113 grams, 4 oz
- 1/4 cup oil 59 ml
- 1 cup granulated sugar 200 grams, 7 oz
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup milk 118 ml
Pumpkin Flan
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 condensed milk can 396 grams, 14 oz
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour 15 grams, 0.5 oz
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice
Instructions
Caramel
- To make the caramel, start by melting sugar in a small pan over medium heat. Leave the water measured out and set aside, nearby, ready to go.
- Don’t stop stirring, as you want the sugar to melt evenly.
- Once all the sugar has melted, the syrup will have a light brown color.
- When the syrup is smooth, with no sugar granules or lumps, take the pan out of the heat.
- Be careful with this next step. Pour the 1/2 cup of water over the melted sugar. It will probably splash, so you need to be careful and maintain your distance.
- When you pour the water over the melted sugar, some of the caramel will crystallize.
- Bring mixture back to the heat, and keep stirring with your spatula until all the sugar has re-melted.
- Once the syrup is smooth and with a deep amber color, remove from the heat. It’s supposed to be a very thin and light syrup.
- Remove caramel to a heat-safe container. Let it cool slightly.
Chocolate Cake
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
- Grease a bundt pan thoroughly with vegetable shortening, or butter. Sprinkle granulated sugar all over it, covering the entire surface. I used a 12 cups bundt pan.
- Pour caramel on the bottom of the bundt pan. Set aside. I like to keep it in the fridge at this point, to help the caramel cool down.
- Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and cocoa powder together. Set aside.
- Mix the eggs, butter, oil, sugar in a bowl.
- Cream with a mixer or whisk the ingredients together for about 2 minutes until the mixture is fluffy.
- Add the vanilla and the milk. Mix to combine.
- Next, add the sifted dry ingredients.
- Mix with a spatula or whisk to incorporate the dry ingredients with the batter.
- Just stir until there are no more dry ingredients in the batter.
Pumpkin Flan
- In a blender, place eggs, condensed milk, pumpkin puree, vanilla, flour, and pumpkin spice.
- Blend mix on high for 1-2 minutes, depending on the potency of your blender.
- You are looking for a smooth thin and runny batter.
To assemble
- Pour chocolate cake bater over caramel layer in the bundt pan. Don’t worry if the caramel gets mixed in the batter, it will separate and go to the bottom as everything bakes together. Use a spatula or spoon to smooth out the top of the chocolate cake batter.
- Pour pumpkin flan batter over chocolate cake, slowly and carefully.
- Place the bundt pan in a large roasting pan with about 2 inches of water in to make a water bath.
- Place it in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes. You will notice that the batters have inverted and the chocolate cake batter will be on top. When the chocolate cake batter seems set (but not fully baked yet), cover the pan with foil.
- The reason why I am instructing to cover the pan only after the chocolate cake batter has set, is because sometimes the batter will rise too much and stick to the foil.
- Keep baking the covered flan. Make sure to check your flan around the 60 minute mark.
- Insert a toothpick in the cake to make sure it comes out clean, which means it’s done baking.
- If not, keep baking, until up to 90 minutes.
- The cake on top should be coming off the sides of the pan slightly.
- Let flan cool down, place it in the fridge for 6 hours or overnight.
- When you are ready to remove the flan from the pan, just fill up a large pan with some warm water, place the bundt pan in the water bath, so this way it will help loosen up the caramel that’s on the bottom of the bundt pan, for easy removal. Let the bundt pan sit in this water bath for a few minutes. Wiggle the pan around, if the flan jiggles, means it’s lose on the bottom.
- Flip it onto a cake plate.
Storage:
- Store it in your fridge, covered, for up to 5 days.
Amazing recipe, Camila!
thank you so much Rosana!!!
Que delícia! Quero provar!
I’m all about pumpkin + chocolate! This looks and sounds so delicious. I’m afraid I might need to make a couple of them, at least – one for me, one for the rest of the fam. That sounds about right! Love this recipe!
I saw this recipe on eagle brand’s Instagram a couple of days ago I think and I melted because of how amazing the texture looks! Well done!
awee omg thank you!!!
The recipe looks great. Loved the video, very well explained and visually wonderful. I was wondering if for the chocolate cake, could you use a mix from a box or would that make a difference? I want to make the recipe as soon as possible, delicious! Happy holidays..
Yes you can use a mix!!! It will work great!
Thank you so much! Happy Holidays, Amanda!!
A aparência e o sabor estão fantásticos, não tem como não gostar!!!!!!
Obrigada pai!!
Omg! I hope this works! I made this recipe from America’s Test Kitchen with regular flan and wanted to do a pumpkin version for Thanksgiving. It looks like you did the hard work of putting the 2 recipes together for me!! Results on Friday…
Ohhhh I am super excited for you!! This is a lovely recipe! I tested and re-tested lol so you should be good to go!!! Thanks Karen!!!! Have a happy Thanksgiving!!
How much is 1 can of pumpkin puree? I plan to use my own.
Hello! The recipe calls for 1 cup of pumpkin puree, not 1 can 🙂
So you’re good to go!!
Thank you!! I hope you enjoy it!!!
Question!? Do I continue to bake 60 more minutes after the 40 minutes and foiled!? Or 20 more minutes plus more if needed!? By the way everything tastes amazing and it’s not even cooked yet!! Thank you for this recipe
20 minutes after the 40, so overall about 1 hour 🙂 Insert a toothpick in the cake to make sure it comes out clean, which means it’s done baking. If not, continue to bake for another 15 to 30 minutes, checking in between.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Omgee…I just realized it’s 1 cup of pumpkin not 1 cup…=(. No wonder Flan batter was thicker not runny and cake batter didn’t invert… Flan stayed on top of pan…hoping it cooks well even if it didn’t invert…
Did you use 1 can instead of 1 cup? Have you baked it already? Let me know how it goes!
Hope it works out fine, Jessica!
I just wanted to let you know that the ingredients list calls for room temperature butter, not melted. And in your video you use melted. My chocolate cake batter came out very thick because I followed the recipe and used softened, not melted, butter. I think it would be worth changing the recipe to what you actually use.
It will actually be fine with either soft or melted butter, I’ve done with both, and I’ve done with just oil and no butter as well. All work great. Besides the batter being thick, was there anything wrong with the final results? Either way, that was an oversight on my part, I’ve fixed the recipe to reflect what the video shows. Thank you so much for pointing it out to me.
Oi Camila, Thank you for this recipe, I made it last night for my children. We’re celebrating Hanukkah tonight, and it will be the perfect dessert!
that’s amazing! Happy Hanukkah!!
Amazing recipe! It’s so cool how the cake and the flan switched places! The only thing I changed was use Mochiko flour in the flan and I also used a hand mixer for the flan because I forgot to put them in the blender until I was using the hand mixer. Still a forgiving recipe though. Thanks for all your hard work!
That’s awesome!!! I am so happy to hear!!! Thank you!!!
Made this yesterday for our church’s Friendsgiving today, this time with a Duncan Hines Devil’s Food cake mix. For the caramel, my Smart Sugar was wasted and didn’t melt so I threw that away and started afresh with brown sugar. I don’t have white. Used Mochiko flour again and this time threw in 3/4 teaspoons of agar agar powder. Why 3/4, I don’t really know. I worked though! Also greased my bundt pan with an almond oil spray and for the sugar, I just spread out Smart Sugar. Thanks again! I will be making this again next week for our family get-together for Thanksgiving next week and quite possibly for next year too!
That sounds awesome Michelle!
I took a chance on this “magic” cake and it turned out great! I used a box chocolate cake mix. I suggest standing over the sink when turning the cake pan onto the serving plate, as there was a significant splash of the caramel sauce, which happily landed in the sink.
That’s awesome to hear that it worked out great for you!
Hi! I just made this cake yesterday. Everything turned out exactly as it was supposed to, and it even unpanned perfectly. I just have one question: Is the cake supposed to be a dense consistency, like a fudge brownie? That’s how mine is. It tastes good, but it’s very fudgy. Thanks and keep making all the wonderful things!
It can be fudgy if you undercook it slightly. If i cook it for a bit longer, it definitely comes out more cakey, less fudgy.
Thank you! I’m going to try again!
My cake didn’t invert. Can I still keep going?
what do you mean? after baking? sometimes a layer of flan will stay on top, it’s fine.
Phenomenal recipe! Although my flan layer did not invert completely and I ended up with custard rim around the lower edge of the cake and along some of the fluting of the pan edge it did not impact the flavor (I am still uncertain why this happened). I did have one question – I am not new to caramel and I really struggled with the addition of water. Ultimately I had to add extra near boiling water to dissolve the crystallized sugar and strain the remainder (consistency and flavor were not affected, fortunately!) have you ever tried a wet caramel or would you recommend against it?
Appreciate the recipe so much. Cannot wait to make it again.
I havent tried this with wet caramel. You could try it if you want to. Just cook the sugar and water until it becomes amber color, without stirring. I think the ratio would be the same. I think it’s so much easier with just melting the sugar and adding the water. Just lower the temperature and stir the mixture slowly until the crystallized sugar dissolves, it can take a little bit. If you’re afraid to overcook the caramel remove the pan from the heat and try to melt the crystallized bits by stirring for a bit. Do you think maybe the heat could have been too high?
Can I use a round cake pan or does it have to be a Bundt pan?
you could, if it’s big enough
Eagle has changed the volume of its sweetened condensed milk from 14 to 10 oz . Should zi open a second can and top up to 14 oz? I really want to make this without fooling up.
I still only have the 14 oz cans here, but yes you will need 14 oz for the recipe.
Thanks for the recipe Camila! Like one of the others I mistakenly did 1 CAN vs 1 cup of pumpkin. The outcome was that I had to bake for 2 hours to get a clean toothpick test. Caramel was not as smooth but maybe because of the overbaking. The consistency wasn’t horrible…it was like a pumpkin pie on top of a chocolate cake. Live and learn right? Again thanks for a different dessert idea! i’ve been wanting to make this type of dessert and this year I finally did.