Ivan's weblog

Fabiola gave me this recipe that Paty gave her. We have a picture of the cake in our album; I post it here because it has become popular: a guy named Rudy from Texas sent me an email asking for the recipe!

For the flan:
3 eggs
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1 can of evaporated milk (carnation) (12 fl oz)
1 bar of cream cheese (8 oz)
1 tsp vanilla
Combine everything in the blender.

For the chocolate part use devil’s food chocolate cake mix and follow the instructions in the box.

The pan has to be buttered very well; then put the chocolate mix and on top carefully spoon the flan mix. If the surface of the chocolate mix gets disturbed a little bit it doesn’t matter, the two layers will flip anyway while they cook. Cover it with aluminum foil and cook it in “baño María” (water bath) for 1h to 1 h 10 min at 375 F. It is enough if the water just reaches half the height of the pan. Check the cake with a knife until it comes clean to make sure is cooked. The chocolate cake will be cooked for sure, but the flan is the tricky part.

After removing if from the oven let it cool down for 30 min-1 h and then flip it. If you put it in the fridge overnight it’s better because the flan sets better. If you have to eat it right away the flan may be still a little soft in the inside. But either way it tastes great.

You can add some butterscotch caramel on top, or chocolate syrup, or whatever you want just before serving. The original recipe calls for “cajeta", which is a sweet syrup made out of milk, is the Mexican version of Dulce de Leche.

When I’m alone, driving on the highway, I sometimes listen to the radio. I start at the low end of the FM spectrum (87.9 MHz) and scan for stations. I often stop at the first classical music station I find. I’ve noticed that there is almost always one such station between 88 and 90 MHz. I’ve seen that in MA, CT, NY, NJ, and MD, as well as in Mexico City. Is this some sort of unwritten convention, or is it just a coincidence?