Flan Casero (Homemade Spanish Caramel Custard) vs Île Flottante: Delicate French Floating Island

Both desserts build on milk, sugar, eggs and caramel, yet they treat these shared ingredients very differently. The flan combines whole eggs with additional yolks and sweetened condensed milk, baking everything in a water bath over a layer of caramel until it sets into a firm, structured yet silky custard, turned out so the caramel cascades over it. The île flottante instead separates its eggs: the yolks become a pourable crème anglaise infused with vanilla bean, while the whites are whipped into airy meringue islands, finished with drizzled caramel and toasted flaked almonds for crunch.