Combine These Two Mixtures and Watch What Happens in the Oven (The Impossible Cake)

I pour the chocolate cake batter into the pan first. Then I pour the flan on top of it. The wrong order, on purpose. One hour in the oven, and they switch places by themselves. Chocolate on the bottom, flan on top, caramel over everything. They call it pastel imposible, the impossible cake, and the bakery charges forty-five dollars for it. It is not magic, mija. It is weight. Heavy sinks and light rises, and the oven does the rest. 📖 My mother's whole kitchen, every recipe and every measure, one book: https://berthascookbook One honest thing: the chocoflan is not in my book as a recipe. The flan half is (page 345), the same flan we made with no holes. The chocolate cake is mine. WHY IT FLIPS The flan custard is heavy (two cans of milk and five eggs). The cake batter is light and full of air, and it rises in the heat. The custard sinks, the batter floats up over it, and by the time the flan sets they are in the right order. The water bath keeps the custard gentle while the cake bakes above it. THE RECIPE (serves 12) The caramel: • 3/4 cup sugar The chocolate cake: • 1 cup all purpose flour, spooned and leveled, never scooped • 1/2 cup cocoa powder • 3/4 cup sugar • 1 teaspoon baking powder • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda • 1/4 teaspoon salt • 1 egg • 1/2 cup milk • 1/4 cup oil + 1/4 cup melted butter • 1 teaspoon vanilla The flan (page 345 of La Cocina de Bertha): • 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk • 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk • 4 eggs plus 1 yolk • 1 tablespoon vanilla • Pinch of salt Condensed and evaporated are NOT the same. In a guisado a swap is an opinion. In a cake it is a demolition. 1. Caramel: sugar alone, swirl never stir, the color of an old copper coin. Pour into a bundt or round pan and tilt. Butter the walls above the caramel all the way up. 2. Cake: whisk the dry things in one bowl, the wet in another. Wet into dry, stir ONLY until the flour disappears. It should be thick, like a heavy pudding. Pour over the caramel and smooth it. 3. Flan: everything into the blender a few seconds, just until one color. Not foamy. Let it stand 5 minutes so the foam dies. 4. Pour the flan over the cake SLOWLY, over the back of a big spoon, in one spot. It will spread over the top and cover the chocolate. That is correct. 5. Foil tight over the pan. Set it in a larger pan, hot water halfway up. 350°F, 55 to 70 minutes, until a skewer in the CAKE layer comes out clean and the flan under it only shivers. Do not open the oven before 30 minutes. 6. Cool on the counter 1 hour, then refrigerate at least 4 hours, better overnight. Every failed impossible cake was flipped warm. 7. Thin knife around the edge, lipped plate on top, flip with conviction, lift the mold straight up. IF IT WENT WRONG • Layers mixed into a swirl: batter too thin, or the flan poured too fast. Thick batter, and the spoon. • Cake layer dry: overbaked. Skewer in the cake only, pull the minute it is clean. • Flan with holes: oven too hot or water too shallow. • Would not come out: it did not get its night, or you skipped buttering the walls. • Box mix: it works, but the batter is thinner. Pour the flan even slower. A clean line is a from-scratch line. Tell me your county, and tell me what your family calls it: chocoflan, pastel imposible, or something else.