Impossible Cake/Pastel Imposible

This cake seemed to be doomed from the start when I second guessed myself about ingredient quantities (is that 9 oz buttermilk by weight or by volume?) and learned that the seal on my 10” x 3” springform pan (the pan size required) was very poor when I watched my homemade cajeta leak onto the counter.

I decided that the quantities for the liquids were volume measurements and switched to my leak-proof 9” x 3” springform pan and forged ahead!

The cake is a standard cocoa based chocolate butter cake made with buttermilk and flavoured with espresso. The flan layer consists of canned milks blended with eggs and vanilla.

Now comes the impossible part: though the cake batter goes into the pan on top of a layer of cajeta, and is followed by the flan ingredients, the cake bakes on top of the flan, and the cajeta remains at the bottom!

Happily, this was not the disaster I predicted (though the cake did sink in the middle as it cooled)……the flavours and textures were very nice together and the dessert was not overly sweet. The cake was dense but moist, the flan smooth and creamy and topped with homemade goat’s milk cajeta, it made for a very festive end to our Cinco de Mayo meal.