The Birthday Flan

Tomorrow is Jimmy's birthday, and for his birthday cake, I decided to try a new recipe that was in our newspaper this week.  Jimmy loves flan, and I have never tried to make it before.  Olivia and Julie have, and it turned out delicious.  This recipe looked good, so instead of trying to make my usual pecan pie (that always turns out pitifully) for Jimmy's birthday, I made the flan cake instead.  We won't eat it until tomorrow, so I am not sure how it tastes!  I am posting the recipe so that if I do want to make it again in the future, I can just get the recipe from my blog instead of having to save a newspaper clipping!

Flan Cake

1 box cake mix

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. almond extract

1/2 cup sugar

Prepare cake mix according to box directions, and set aside.

In blender, combine both milks, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract.

In skillet, cook sugar over medium heat until melted.  Do not let it burn!

Grease 12 in. cake pan (I used my new smooth-sided bundt pan) and pour caramelized sugar in the bottom.  Add cake mix batter.  Carefully and slowly pour milk and egg mixture around the sides of the cake batter in the pan.  The cake mix will rise and the milk mixture will be at the bottom of cake.

Place this pan inside a larger pan and fill the outer pan halfway with water. 

Bake at 350 for one hour.

Once the cake has cooled, refrigerate overnight.

When ready to serve, run a knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a serving plate.

I also made homemade monkey bread to serve for Jimmy's birthday breakfast tomorrow morning.  Yum!

This morning, Jimmy, Lynn, Kelly, Heather, Esther, and I all did our long run together.  Lynn, Kelly, and I ran 18, Esther ran 16, Heather ran 20, and Jimmy did 22.  Jimmy did his 22 miles 1 minute faster than the three of us did our 18!  I am exhausted!  Jimmy and I have been rewarding ourselves with a Salted Caramel Mocha from Starbucks after our long runs each week.  Lynn and Kelly joined us today in honor of Jimmy's birthday tomorrow.  

We are planning a fun morning for Jimmy tomorrow, and then he and our boys will be going on our homeschool Father/Son campout.