Happy Birthdayt to ME!

For my birthday I made a cake that I had wanted to make for Will's birthday but it didnt happen because it was a little intimidating and time consuming.  Will said he had tried making one before but the flan didnt set for some reason.  We both had this kind of cake on our missions.  Will remembered it with chocolate cake, but I remembered it with yellow, so I made it this way.  The cook in my first area was from Brazil, so kudos to Brazil for the amazing flan cake - it stays super moist.  Behold - I give you- the flan cake!

Flan Cake

• 1 yellow cake mix (prepared according to directions on the box – check to see if you need extra eggs or oil for this.)
• 1/4 cup caramel topping (Cajeta de Leche if you can find it at a Mexican market)
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. almond extract 
• Ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.put your bain marie vessel in the oven while it is preheating.

2. Grease and flour a large Bundt pan.

3. Prepare cake mix according to package directions.

4. Pour the caramel topping around the bottom of the Bundt pan.

5. Pour cake mix over caramel.

6. In a blender, mix together well: eggs, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract.

7. Pour the flan mix gently down one side of the pan.The flan will go to the bottom and the cake mix will raise up a bit as the flan mixture fills the bottom of the pan.

8. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

9. Place your cake in the bain marie pan (i used a 9×13 pan) and add hot water about 1 to 1 1/2 inches up the side of the Bundt pan.

10. Bake (in the water bath) 45 min, then cover with foil and bake about 20 min more.. It should be slightly golden brown. Test for doneness by inserting toothpick in the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done.

11. Remove from water bath and cool 10 to 15 minutes.

12. Invert onto a cake plate. The caramel will still be runny – it’s supposed to be to melt over the cake, so be careful when inverting! Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

I tried to make my own carmel sauce but it turned into candy so my cake had no carmel, but was plenty sweet and tasty.