Impossible Cake

This recipe was so simple. I made my own caramel sauce and made it in a very decorative bundt pan. It came out easily and beautifully. I've even made it in a hurry using a cake mix and it was wonderful. The cake was moist but dense. A keeper!!!

This is a Mexican ChocoFlan . I make it all the time...so very delicious. The chocolate cake soaks up the milky creaminess and makes it heavenly.

This is a delicious cake. I made it yesterday and the recipe was fantastic. The measurement of the ingredients and cooking times were spot on. I used Ghirardelli caramel sauce that didn't need to be microwaved. This is quite possibly be my favorite cake recipe.

I tried this recipe partly out of curiosity and partly because I wanted a Mexican-inspired dessert to go with Chef John's recipe for Pork Chili Verde. The taste of the chocolate cake batter is very smooth and pleasant. I would enjoy itself. I've never been a fan of flan, although a friend from the Philippines cooked some homemade flan that I enjoyed. I'm amazed at how the flan batter sinks to the bottom of the pan and sets. The flan layer possessed a nice, creamy sweetness that worked well with the chocolate layer. I could not find cajeta. I attempted to make dry caramel, but it ended up being more of a Chernobyl experience. I then made the wet caramel, but could not get enough out of the sauce pan before it hardened. As a result, I felt like my cake needed twice the caramel I ended up with to equal what the recipe asked for. A stronger caramel taste would have added a nice complexity to the taste. A darker, amber caramel with a slight bitter flavor would balance the sweetness of the other two layers. Those who tasted the cake raved about it. The response was more enthusiastic than anticipated. Overall, it's a delicious cake that's easy to make, although people will assume it's much more difficult because of the flan layer. Let them believe what they wish and take the compliments.

This looks & sounds delicious from watching the video. I won't rate it until I actually make it. BUT, my comment is about the breaking of eggs directly into your batter & the blender... Obviously you have never had the unfortunate experience to break a rotten egg, or worse, one with a partially developed baby chicken, into your work in progress! Both of these have happened to me from eggs purchased from well known grocery stores & aside from nearly barfing over it, also ruined the ingredients that I had already started preparing. Even if the least reason for breaking into another container first, just to prevent shells from possibly ending up in your mixture, it is worth using a measuring cup or other container for your eggs. Also, if you use a narrow edge of a bowl or skillet for cracking your eggs, you are more likely to cause bits of shell to end up in with your egg. Instead, crack them on a flat surface, then break them open with your thumbs. Learned these tips many years ago in my home economics class but it took those 2 awful experiences to drill into me about using a separate container for the egg before adding to the mix! Can't wait to try this cake!!! Well, dang it, I can't post without a rating so I'm giving it 5...

Yum! I was so happy to find and try this recipe. I had made this before once in Mexico, with a boxed cake mix, and it came out great, but I've since become sort of a baking purist and I like to make things from scratch. So I tried making it with the Hershey's cocoa cake recipe, and perhaps because that is such a runny batter, the pastel imposible didn't come out right at all - the cake and the flan just mixed up and baked that way. But now this! I tried this recipe yesterday and it turned out perfectly! I followed it almost exactly - the only change being that I used my own flan recipe, which has 6 eggs instead of 4, and a little bit less evaporated milk. It worked wonderfully. Thank you! Such an impressive cake!

I've made this twice now, the first time I made it like the recipe except I used salted caramel it was great . The second time I switched up I made it coconut. I used salted caramel and white cake with coconut extract , for the cream mixture I used coconut milk instead of evaporated milk and added more coconut extract for flavor and sprinkled toasted coconut on top

My bundt pan is obviously not the same as the recipe's submitter. It is a 9" pan but it curves in at the bottom so it must hold less... The recipe as written made way too much to fit my pan. My cans of condensed milk were not 14-oz so it took 1.5 cans. I could tell after I put the cake batter in that it would overflow if I added all the flan mixture, SO, I spread some caramel in a 9" loaf pan and scooped out some of the chocolate cake mix into there, then divided the flan mix between the 2 pans. I used the loaf pan as my "tester" this afternoon before I served the real deal to my dinner guests tonight. Baked at 325 in a convection oven in water bath. Loaf pan was done at 40-min; Bundt took 55-min. I put this in the fridge all day so it solidified. It tasted best cold. This was a very tasty, unique dessert. I used Smucker's non-microwavable caramel syrup, and drizzled individual pieces with extra syrup when I served them. My son didn't care for this, but everyone else did. Yum!!

D-licious! This was a really intriguing cake to make. took a little step-by-step planning and turned out FANTASTIC! I highly recommended it. All guests loved it. I will make it again and again.

This cake is easy to make and has an accurate name “Impossible” as in Impossible to keep a piece for the next day! I made the first cake for my husbands work and everyone raved about it. The following day I made one for my family and one for my neighbor. It’s the perfect blend of rich flan, gooey caramel, and decadent chocolate cake. It’s a triple threat that delivers on taste, texture, and beautiful presentation! This is now the cake I bake to impress! Just a warning, do NOT remove from the pan for at least an hour. Heed the directions on this, as I tried to remove one early and had a bit of a collapse on the side. Totally my fault for not letting it set.

I found this recipe about a week before my birthday, so I decided to try it. I had never heard of cajeta, so I ordered some off Amazon. It was pretty pricey, and did have an unusual tang to it. I don't know what it is supposed to taste like, but the stuff I got was pretty good, but not worth the money. If I make this again, I will just use a jar caramel ice cream topping. The only changes I made were not flouring the pan, and putting the flan ingredients in the blender instead of a food processor (the liquid would have run out of my food processor!). The cake part is yummy. The flan part could stand a little more flavor, I might try throwing a couple tablespoons of brown sugar in it next time. It baked up beautifully in about 55 minutes. We found it was best with a little extra caramel sauce poured over the top (hot fudge was good too, but caramel was better.)

Pretty cake and came out beautifully - and looks really professional. Chocolate cake is very fudgy and delicious as a result of the milk soaking through it to the top. I personally am not a huge flan fan so might have liked it better if the flan layer was a little smaller. That said, I’ve rarely gotten as many great compliments on a cake or as many requests for the recipe - so if I vote with the crowd who loved it without any hesitation, then I’d say stick with the recipe as is and people will rave about it.

it's awesome, so easy, delicious and magical, there is noooo way to ruin this even if you are a beginner. definitely a keeper.

When I figured out why it was called “Impossible Cake” I laughed so hard. Scared me a bit lol! This was a great recipe. The directions could use some tweaking around the baking cocoa mark. There’s a lot of separate bowls that aren’t accounted for. But definitely easy and delicious. Used Smuckers Caramel sauce.

Really delicious cake! I was seriously confused as to how this cake worked based on the instructions until I watched the video. The flan portion of the cake settles to the top during baking. I am not sure how other people stored this, but I kept it in the fridge due to the flan portion and the fact I live in a high humidity environment. However, the chocolate cake eventually dries out in the fridge. I might consider putting some semi-sweet chocolate chips in the chocolate cake portion if I make it again.

It turned out well, very rich. The instructions are to cool for 1 hour and then invert. I suggest cooling in the refrigerator until totally set. The layers separated when I plated it. I will definitely bake this again.

So very, very good - but working with the different textured layers can be a little tricky when it comes to the final product (look and consistency, not taste, which is - in a word - always spectacular). Rather than using the suggested caramel recipe, try this: one cup of sugar into a pan (shake a bit so it’s even), add 1/3 cup of water that will moisten all of the sugar (do not stir). Heat on medium (seriously, don’t stir it) until sugar is dissolved, then bubbling, then turns a honey color. As soon as you have a honey color, remove from heat and add 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream slowly from the edge towards the center. Then add two tablespoons of butter and stir until smooth. Let it cool to about room temperature before adding to pan. The good thing about this caramel recipe is that it makes enough that if your caramel seizes or you have a crystallized sugar clump (most likely from letting the sugar cook a touch too long before adding cream) you can just scoop out the less successful bits and use the rest. However, if you do pour too much caramel into the bottom of the pan, it makes the flan layer a bit problematic - making cooking and cooling the appropriate amount of time even more important. The flan layer keeps the cake moist, so overcooking it a bit won’t hurt too much, but helps set everything. As noted by others, leave it in the pan a LONG time. A fun recipe!

Sorry but this did not turn out as I hoped. I'm a fairly experienced cook and baker. It seems the bundt pan I used may have been too deep, making the cake thicker to the point it was not cooked long enough ( though it was an hour and the toothpick came out clean.) After taking the cake out of the pan (cooled for 45 minutes - too soon??), it began to fall into the center. So it looked bad and the flavor just wasn't great. Overall, not worth all the time it took - thus, the name - 'impossible'! Sorry, I love to find great new recipes and give people good feedback - but not this time.

Excellent dessert. Presentation and flavor were great.

Intermediate baker here, followed the recipe to a T and this went horribly wrong (twice!), still not sure why. :-( Even made my own cajeta (which was delicious) and still this whole thing was literally a hot mess. The first cake turned into a soup on top, the second was still pretty soupy and the cake sunk. Vexed and extremely disappointed! We managed to eat them with spoons but it still was just sad.

I made it, took it to our Church coffee hour and everyone loved it. Like someone else posted, my bundt pan must be a small version because all the ingredients won't fit. Unfortunately I put the cake batter in, put the pan in the oven in the water bath, then poured the flan ingredients on top. It quickly started overflowing, so I put the rest of the flan into 2 small Pyrex glass bowls and placed those in the water bath. Also, it says a shallow pan to fill up to a third of the bundt pan. That doesn't work. The shallow pan can't hold enough water so maybe a cake pan? I used a 1/2 c. Smuckers caramel, not reading it correctly. Next time I will order the Mexican caramel. So when I turned it upside down, it was a bit of a caramel, milky mess. haha, but impressive!! and tasted delicious. So I want to make it again and not repeat my mistakes

Came out beautifully! Since I hadn’t made it before I followed the recipe exactly as written, next time I make it I will add a bit of cayenne and cinnamon to the chocolate cake and the flan. I made it for a dinner party and it quickly disappeared and I started getting requests for another one the very next day.

Thank you for a winner! I worried because my caramel (melted sugar) got too hard and wouldn't cover the bottom of the pan. It corrected itself in the baking and got rave reviews! It's recipes like this that have people volunteering to be my taste testers!

Tasted delicious. Was a bit time consuming to make and it actually fell apart when I took out of the pan...... Hence the 3stars. It was really yummy though. Ate it in bowls with a spoon and strawberries on top.

My family loved this dessert. My only problem was 'melting' the sugar for the caramel layer. Simply said it didn't work for me. Is there a secret? Will definitely make again

never been a fan of custard generally but....Wow. This is a keeper. Textures and flavors balance and meld incredibly. And looks impressive too!

Made this cake and it was delicious. I was very skeptical of the cake and flan switching places, but it did and it was perfect. Came out of the pan easily. I made my own caramel sauce, and made extra to pour over the cake when done. The cake is moist, and the extra sauce puts it over the edge good. Got rave reviews. Looks beautiful too.

scrumptious

This cake is deliciously rich and creative. I followed the directions after reading the reviews and got very nervous when time came to pour in the flan. By the way, I’d never made flan before. I have an old bundt cake pan from the 70s and it looked like their wasn’t enough room but it all went in and almost came up to the top. I wasn’t worried about it over flowing because it would be set in a dish of water. It turned out beautiful and did not overflow even though as I was putting it in the dish in the oven the flan sank. Not like it was a surprise but I thought that was supposed to happen during baking. By the way the chocolate cake was delicious and I would like to try that solo. The only problem that I had was lifting that full, very heavy bundt pan and settling into a dish of hot water. But that’s probably because I’m not as strong or sure footed as I used to be. Thanks for sharing.

I don't see where it's impossibly easy.

Made as directed and was 5 star... Added toasted coconut and used coconut oil as substitute for regular oil... delicious addition! See pic

This is a chocolate flan cake, which I’ve made using a chocolate cake mix and cajeta that comes in a squeezable bottle. The key to this is the water bath. I will try this recipe as is.

I love puttering in the kitchen and this was a great opportunity to spend some time on this wonderful cake. Though there were steps and many ingredients, it was visually appealiing and wonderful tasting! The Woman's Club of Keystone Heights members enjoyed it immensely!

This has to be the best cake I have ever made.

A superb cake, which lends itself to many many innovations. I used 1/2 cup Dulce de leche instead of milk added 2 more eggs and 3/4 cup of evaporated milk (I beat the whole thing in a blender then poured it through a sieve, then over the cake) I steamed the cake after baking it as I did not have a Bundt pan,and the center did not cook , after steaming I poured about 1/2 cup of instant coffee dissolved in hot water , over the cake while still steaming. The cake had a fabulous texture and fit perfectly with the flan. The cake came out delicious and my guests emptied the plate.

I did not make any changes. It was delicious and a crowd pleaser. My guests loved it!

So easy and fabulous!! I followed the directions and video to the tea. Used a stand mixer with the whisk attachment for the cake and ninja food processor for the flan. For the caramel sauce just used tres lyche. Will drizzle some more when ready to serve.

This cake is essentially a flan on top of a rich chocolate cake. It is phenomenally delicious and incredibly decadent.

I made this cake today and it was a complete failure the flan which i thought was too liquidity never gelled at all . I bake a lot of things and this was a failure all the way around , but tasted delicious for cake soup

This is a very very yummy cake! Will definitely be making this again. Thanks for sharing!

This was so decadent and chocolatey. The Fam loved it!! I will definitely making this again.

it was just ok. My family likes cake, flan and creme brule but didn't like this cake. I won't make it again.

Absolutely love it!!!

Made Cajeta from scratch (different recipe) - DON'T try (as suggested) to just take granulated sugar and melt/toast it, would have ruined the recipe had I used that. We had a Mexican dinner with our small group so I pulled this up to bring as a dessert. Things got in the way, then making the Cajeta took so long, I pulled this out of the oven just as we left the house. It cooled on the cold garage floor for 1/2 hour, but was still warm when I unmolded it. Presentation was BEAUTIFUL, everyone loved it and the delicious Cajeta on the top (and brought the extra. Thanks!

Justo....

It was truly impossible, but impossibly good!

Has anyone tried making this recipe using mini bundt pans?

Best cake ever. Authentic and spot on recipe

Great recipe - although lots of bowls used ! Everyone loved it - it’s a keeper-

I liked this cake a lot! I do try to cut back on sugar, so I changed the one cup sugar to about 5/8 of a cup and it was fine. The only glitch I experienced was my caramel topping wasn't hardened and much of it stayed behind in the pan. Next time I will let the cake cool longer in the pan or add the caramel as a topping after removing the pan.

My whole family loved it!!! I only used 3/4 sugar to decrease sweetness and baked for 1 1/2 hours. I encountered some problems with my tube pan since I noticed it had a leakage. So I had to pour everything into a normal baking pan. I thought I was going to get a marble-ish cake because of that but in the end it found its way back!! I’m so happy I came across this recipe. Thank you for sharing it!

This is flan with cake! What would be bad? This absolutely incredibly addictive and delicious. OMG??

Made almost exactly to the recipe--only added a dash of nutmeg to the custard. My friends think I'm a 5-star cook and I'm not going to tell them how easy it was.

This recipe intrigued me. The Cajeta syrup easily found in Hispanic section at WalMart ($3-4). My end result wasn't as appetizingly attractive as I had hoped, but tasted delicious. I keep it in fridge, so a small chilled slice of cake is simply irresistible. Very rich so service size should be small. Reminds me of a ho-ho inspired cake I used to make, but this Impossible Cake had a pleasantly creamier and not so overly sugary filling (aka the flan). Better than the old cake.

Follow the steps carefully and you won't be disappointed. I love love love this cake!!!

Lots of fuss and ingredients for what we didn't think was a very tasty cake.

This is actually called Choco flan but it’s very delicious

My first attempt was a big fail. When I flipped the pan, the flan "globbed" out on the counter and the floor. Some stayed in the pan. What I tasted was EXCELLENT but I don't know why it didn't work for me. I used a bundt pan even though the recipe called for a "tube" pan. What is that? I looked at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Amazon and Ikea and could not find one. They're clearly using a bundt pan in the video. But I am definitely trying again! I was tempted to eat the flan off the floor - it was that good!

I was curious about this cake and how/if it would really switch places and....it did! The cake was delicious, not too sugary sweet and the Flan was delicious too. Everyone raved about it. Definitely one I would make again

My goodness delicious cake and so easy to make

This was a disaster! I followed the recipe to the letter, and when I turned it upside down to put it on the serving plate, the flan was not cooked and the milk mixture went everywhere! Any suggestions?

Experienced baker; I've attempted this 3 times and it never comes out right despite following the recipe to the letter. Honestly, there are far simpler cake recipes out there that require less clean up and taste great. Not going to try this recipe again but glad that it works for some people!

Really is an amazing cake. Soft moist and chocolate mocha with this wonderful creme caramel type topping. Changed nothing except the condensed milk and evaporated milk mixture was too much for my baking pan so I would halve that next time.

This was really yummy, however the flan was a little under done, but I was not aware of this, since the chocolate cake tested fine. Next time I Will bake it longer.

Our family thought the cake was good, but not exceptional. Followed the recipe as written.

Instead of the cajeta i substituted cooked sweetened condensed milk with brown sugar. It worked pretty good. Really delicious chocolatey and carmely flavor. Thumbs up!

Excellent and easy! I think you could use a commercial caramel sauce instead of making it. Very moist and kept nicely from the afternoon I baked it until the next day.

5 Stars! Hit of our Mexican themed lunch!

Really good. I ccoked it for an hour before I checked it. Should have started checking at about 50 minutes. It was a little overcooked and dry. Directions said to cook for about an hour, so I should have known better. I didn't take a photo, maybe next time I make this for a barbeque at the end of the month. This will be devoured at the barbecue.

Love it!

Amazing. Simple. Moist. Delicious. Magical.

It is possible to mess this cake up if you're not patient . Not easy for me! You have to let it cool completely and my oven takes 80 minutes. I've made the cake with 1/2 cup coffee and 1/2

Wonder if it'd workout with vanilla cake... Not really a fan of chocolate cake, so gonna bake two, one original recipe and one using vanilla cake

Amazing

Very good! I didn’t have a bundt pan, and it still worked out fine. I just flipped each slice over after I cut it. I will definitely make this again.

No, but it was great!

This cake was a huge hit! So delicious. I made my own caramel, but it was not creamy enough so I supplemented with a jar of caramel topping. Also used dark chocolate powder instead of regular, and it was really decadent. It's definitely more trouble than your average cake, but SO worth the effort!

Made this for Thanksgiving dessert and it was a huge hit with the whole family! Easy to make, just follow the directions carefully and it will come out great!

This was delicious and impressive! I substituted commercial butterscotch caramel sauce for the goats milk/ homemade caramel. No problem there! In the custard I didn’t have enough evaporated milk so I about ½ cup is fat free milk. Custard set beautifully and tasted great. Saved a few calories for a second slice!

Good, but would make changes. It does need to cool longer. Cooled it for one hour on counter and one hour in fridge and that worked fine. Biggest issue is I thought cake was dry as listed. Next time would add more whole milk or possibly switch to buttermilk, and do slight less coco powder. Ratio of dry to wet seemed to produce a dry cake to me. Overall worth making again with some tweaks.

I was looking up the recipe for this cake to make for a birthday party that I am hosting. I have made this cake at least 3 times and it always comes out amazing! Everyone loves it. I will say that I have quite a bit of experience making flan which helps. The water bath is very important. And each oven is different so make sure the knife comes out clean, even if it takes longer than the recipe calls for. This cake fascinates me because it flips itself while baking. I think this is a 5-star recipe!

Fantastic!

Absolutely love it!!!

Even though this recipe is highly rated, I didn't care for it. The cake portion was a little tough, and I didn't like the combination of the cake and flan. It's all just a matter of taste, I suppose.

This cake is different. The cake itself is quite dense (like pound cake) and mine turned out very slightly on the dry side. It requires a fair amount of clean up afterward too. I used caramel sauce from the ice cream section of the store because I couldn't find the cajeta and it was fine. I filled the bundt pan all the way to the brim with the flan and still had about a cup left over that I had to throw away. I probably would not make this cake again. It was good, but not great.

Very nice! I made it in a regular tube pound cake pan, i baked it for 1 hour and 40 minutes, next time i will bake it in a bundt pan so it will look pretty. Going to make it for the holidays instead of regular flan. I may test it out on a four pack mini cake pan or ramekins, thanks for sharing this!

delicious!