Preheat oven to 350 degrees

For the caramel sauce:

Pour the sugar in a saucepan on the stove and turn the heat to medium-low.

The sugar will start to caramelize turning a light brown color when fully melted.

The next step you need to work very quickly. Be sure to use a pot holder to avoid burning yourself, both the pan you are pouring from and the one you are pouring the caramel into will get VERY HOT. Be careful as you pour the caramel sauce and spread it around with the spatula, it hardens REALLY fast. You need to spread the sauce on the bottom of the pan and up the sides. I found it worked best if you start on the sides letting the sauce drip down into the middle and you quickly placed it along the sides.

Give your custard another quick blend and then pour it into your pan, you want the custard to go up about 3/4 of the way up the pan.

If you are using a flan pan than put on the top and latch it, if using a cake pan or ramekins cover them tightly with tin foil.

Put your flan inside another baking dish and add water until it reaches half way up.

Bake the flan for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Remove the flan and test it with a toothpick. You want the toothpick to come out clean, if not put it back in for another 10 or f15 minutes and test again.

Leave the pan sealed and let it cook then refrigerate for a minimum of a couple hours to overnight.

Remove the flan from the refrigerator and using a knife run it around the edge of the flan to loosen it. Use a plate where the lid or foil was and holding them tightly together flip the flan onto the plate. Your flan is ready to savor!