How to make the Spiced Pumpkin Chocoflan from Chicano Bakes

Happy Tuesday! Today we’re making the Spiced Pumpkin Chocoflan from the Cakes chapter in my new cookbook, Chicano Bakes!

The book has been out for three weeks now, and what a wild ride it has been! The book sold out at Target the day it was published, and I am so grateful for all of the support. If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy yet, all of my cookbooks are on sale for Thanksgiving week over on my bookshop! Pick up a signed copy of Chicano Bakes or Chicano Eats here.

Since the Dulce de Leche Chocoflan from my first cookbook was such a big hit and went viral when the first book came out, I knew I wanted to develop another chocoflan recipe for Chicano Bakes, and well, I ended up developing THREE new recipes. In the cakes chapter, you’ll find a recipe for a classic chocoflan, the spiced pumpkin chocoflan, and a red velvet chocoflan.

What is a chocoflan?

For those who aren’t familiar with the chocoflan, it is sometimes referred to as “El Pastel Magico” (the magic cake) or “El Pastel Imposible” (The Impossible Cake) due to the magic that happens during the baking process! Traditionally, the dessert features a chocolate cake layer on the bottom, and a caramel flan layer on top. During the assembly, the cake batter actually goes in first, and the flan base is added over it and during the baking process, they’ll swap places due to their density, so when the bundt pan is inverted, you end up with the cake on the bottom, and flan on top. The spiced pumpkin chocoflan we’re making today features a spiced pumpkin cake on the bottom, and a cream cheese flan on top.

A few tips to keep in mind as you make the Spiced Pumpkin Chocoflan:

• Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is heating up to the correct temperature.
• Make sure your leavening, baking powder and baking soda, is fresh.
• Avoid pouring in the flan mixture, ladle it in! Adding the flan in a gentle manner will ensure that we don’t disturb the cake batter. We want to keep each unit separate. If you pour the flan in too aggressively, you might end up with chunks of cake batter baking into the flan.
• Once the chocoflan is done baking, remove it from the water bath, let it cool completely before placing it in the refrigerator to chill for 4 hours to overnight. The chocoflan needs to finish setting in the fridge.
• Once you are ready to serve, let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour. Cold flan will be harder to unmold. If you’re having trouble with it, fill a large baking dish with hot water, then let the bundtpan sit in the hot water for 5-6 minutes. The flan should release with ease.

I’m including a quick video below, just in case you need any more help! It’s a pretty straight forward recipe, and I love that it doesn’t require any special equipment. Everything happens in two big bowls, and in the blender. If you happen to make the chocoflan, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram. Have a great rest of the week, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Print Pin

5 from 4 votes

Spiced Pumpkin Chocoflan

Course Dessert

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword chocoflan, spiced pumpkin

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 50 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings 20

Calories

Ingredients

For the Bundt Pan

• ⅓ cup (100 g) Dulce de Leche or Cajeta

For the Flan

• 14 ounce (397 g) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 ½ cups (354 g) Half-and-Half
• 8 ounces (227 g) Full-Fat Cream Cheese , at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• Pinch of Salt
• 4 Large Eggs

For the Pumpkin Cake

• 2 cups (250 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt , or 1/2 teaspoon Fine Sea Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1½ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon Ground Ginger
• ½ teaspoon Freshly Grated Nutmeg , or 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon Ground Cardamom
• 10 ounces (283 g) Canned Unsweetened Pumpkin Puree
• ⅓ cup (75 g) Neutral Oil , like grapeseed or vegetable
• ¼ cup (57 g) Buttermilk
• 1 cup (200 g) Granulated Sugar
• ⅓ cup (69 g) Light Brown Sugar
• 2 Large Eggs

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Mist a 10-cup Bundt pan well with cooking spray. Cut out a piece of foil large enough to cover the top of the pan and mist it, too. Drizzle the dulce de leche into the bottom of the Bundt pan. 
• Make the flan: In a blender, combine the condensed milk, half-and-half, cream cheese, vanilla, and salt. Blend for 1 minute on medium-high speed, then add the eggs and blend on medium-high for just about 10 seconds. Try not to blend for too long after you add the eggs so you don’t whip too much air into the flan. Set this mixture aside. 
• Make the pumpkin cake: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom. In a second large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, oil, buttermilk, and both sugars until you have a smooth mixture. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, making sure not to overmix. Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet mixture, then use a rubber spatula to fold the dry into the wet. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly incorporated. 
• Scrape the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Gently pour the flan over the top of it by pouring it into a ladle and letting it flow over the edge. This allows the flan to be added without disturbing the cake batter that much. If you aren’t gentle when pouring the flan mixture over the batter, you’ll have chunks of cake baking into the flan. 
• Place the square of aluminum foil greased side down onto the Bundt pan and wrap it around the outside edge of the pan. No need to wrap it super tightly, but try not to just leave it sitting on top. Place the Bundt pan in a large roasting pan. Transfer the roasting pan to a pulled-out oven rack. Fill the roasting pan roughly two-thirds of the way up the sides with warm water (a large pitcher with a good spout is your best friend here) and close the oven door. 
• Bake until a short bamboo skewer or cake tester comes out with only a few crumbs from the cake, 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours. Start checking on it at the 1 hour 45-minute mark and note that if the skewer goes into the flan its tip might be a little wet because the flan won’t have set yet; it will do that in the refrigerator.
• Carefully remove the roasting pan from the oven and carefully lift the Bundt pan out of the water bath and place it on a cooling rack. Let the chocoflan cool completely at room temperature with the foil tented on top of the pan; this will take about 2 hours.
• Place the foil tightly back onto the pan and place the chocoflan in the refrigerator to set completely. This should take 4 to 5 hours, but an overnight 6- to 8-hour chill is ideal for the flan to set up perfectly.
• When you’re ready to serve, carefully use the tips of your fingers to pull the cake away from the edge of the pan then place a large serving platter or cake stand over the Bundt pan and flip over to invert. Depending on your pan the chocoflan might be a little difficult to invert at first. If this is the case dip the bottom of the pan into a bowl of warm water for 5 to 6 minutes and try to invert the cake again.
• To store, carefully wrap it in plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. 
• NOTE: I developed all of the chocoflan recipes using a basic Wilton Bundt pan. I noticed that when I used pans with more intricate designs, the baking time increased by 10 to 15 minutes, and that caused too much marbling. The simpler the Bundt pan, the easier it will be for the batters to swap places during the baking process.