Yummy Experiment #27: Brazo de Mercedes Cupcakes

I woke up this morning wanting to try baking Brazo de Mercedes again. But after preparing the ingredients, I changed my mind and wondered, “can I make brazo into cupcakes?” That’s how I came upon Aikko of Bake Happy and her recipe for Brazo de Mercedes Cupcakes. There I was torn between two recipes – the recipe I learned last December or the one from Bake Happy. I ended up using my recipe, but I followed her tip to use (and I quote her) “baking cupcake cups – the ones that can stand on their own”. That’s the nice thing with the Internet – it’s so easy to find helpful tips and suggestions. From the recipe that I have, here are the ingredients:

• 10 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 10 egg yolks
• 1 can condensed milk

I forgot to include the sugar in this picture. My bad!

Before you do anything else, separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. You’ll use everything, which is awesome because there’s zero waste! Oh, and can you see the sugar now? Here are my cupcake liners that fulfilled Aikko/Bake Happy‘s suggestion. Bought for $2.99 at HomeGoods! I put the egg whites and cream of tartar in one bowl. Then it was beaten until there were soft peaks. While the mixer was mixing, I got my double boiler to make the filling. I placed the egg yolks inside… Followed by the condensed milk. I used a whisk and stirred constantly. Since I had to see what was happening with the meringue, my husband took over stirring duties. Then I checked the meringue. I continued beating it and adding sugar slowly. Here’s the part I wasn’t sure about. It’s supposed to be stiff already. I thought it was. Then I added the vanilla extract. I piped the meringue into the cupcake liner and baked it at 350°F for 7 minutes. After letting it cool, I piped the filling right smack in the middle of the cupcake and finished it with a light dusting of confectioners sugar. There you have it, my Brazo de Mercedes Cupcakes!