We ate Leche Flan Cake all the time when we were growing up in the Philippines. There was a canteen near my Lolo’s (grandpa’s) office that sold it for a few cents a slice. It was always such a treat to go visit my Lolo at work because he invariably would give us some money to run down to the canteen for a slice of Leche Flan Cake. Looking back, I think it was probably his way of getting rid of a bunch of noisy kids so he could work in peace for a while. LOL! Either way, I always thought the cake was the best part of visiting my Lolo at his work. Now, I make my own leche flan cake and hopefully, it’s created some fond memories for my own kids to look back on, too.
Traditional leche flan cake has a thin layer of flan on top of a thick layer of cake, but my Old Goat would always ask if I could make the flan layer thicker (like I do with Chocoflan Cake). So I finally gave in and that’s why my leche flan cake doesn’t look anything like traditional Filipino leche flan cakes. I have to admit he was right though. I do like it better with a thicker layer of flan. The fam sure does, too. And so will you!
FILIPINO LECHE FLAN CAKE
For the Caramel Sauce:
- 2 cups white sugar
- Pour sugar into 9×13-inch metal baking pan and set on stove over low heat.
- Cook sugar until it melts and begins to turn caramel colored.
- Tilt pan so caramel coats the bottom evenly. Use oven mitts! The pan will be hot!
- Set aside to cool. The caramel will harden and could crack as it cools. Don’t worry. This is normal.
For the Leche Flan:
- 2 whole eggs
- 4 egg yolks (save the whites for another use)
- 2 cans evaporated milk
- 1 can condensed milk
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- In a bowl whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, evaporated milk, condensed milk, sugar, and vanilla.
- Pour the mixture over the cooled caramel in the baking pan.
For the Cake:
- 1½ cups cake flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ cup whole milk (or buttermilk)
- ¾ cup oil
- 4 egg yolks (save the whites to make meringue)
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- Sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
- Make a well in the center.
- In a small bowl, whisk the milk, oil, egg yolks, and vanilla.
- Pour the milk mixture into the well of dry ingredients and whisk until combined.
- Set batter aside and make meringue.
For the Meringue:
- 4 egg whites
- ½ tsp. cream of tartar
- ½ cup sugar
- Beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high until frothy.
- Decrease speed to medium and gradually add the sugar.
- Continue beating on medium until eggs whites are glossy and form stiff peaks.
- Take a third of the meringue and carefully fold it into the cake batter to lighten it.
- Fold the rest of the meringue into the cake batter until no more white streaks remain.
- Pour batter slowly over the leche flan mixture in baking pan.
To Bake:
- Place baño maria (water bath) inside oven. You can use a large roasting pan for this.
- Fill with enough water to come at least halfway up sides of baking pan.
- Turn oven on and preheat to 325ºF.
- When oven is ready, carefully lower baking pan with batter into hot water in baño maria.
- Close oven door and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center.
- Remove cake from oven and allow to cool completely; then chill in refrigerator overnight.
- Run a knife along the sides of the cake to loosen it from the pan.
- Turn cake out onto serving platter with a rim to catch any caramel sauce that might drip.
Pinky's Pantry 