Bem Casado

Bem Casados is a traditional Brazilian dessert served at weddings. The words Bem Casado means "good marriage" in Portuguese. This is a perfect name for this dessert. The marriage between the two mini cakes and the dulce de leche is a good one.

I've been wanting to make these for a long time but never had the time or courage to try. I knew they would be a pain to make since the first time I read the recipe where one of the steps is to "remove the skin around the egg yolk." I decided to rely on my good marriage and had my husband babysit all day yesterday so that I could get these done in time for our Christmas eve dinner. I know they are wedding cakes but my gringo family had no idea so they were happy to eat them as a special Christmas eve dessert instead.

Bem Casado
mini cakes dough

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon corn starch
• 1 teaspoon backing powder

filling

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

syrup

• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup water

Directions
mini cakes

1. Preheat the oven to 420
2. Separate the eggs
3. Whisk the egg whites in a stand up mixer with the sugar until it is firm*
4. Add the egg yolks one at a time without their skin (use a metal stainer for this) and add the vanilla. Fold into the egg whites.
5. Slowly add the flour, corn starch, and baking powder and fold into the egg mixture.
6. Drop spoon fulls of the mixture on a cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes.
7. Remove from cookie sheet while it is still hot and place in a cooling rack.
8. When the cakes have completely cooled down spread dulce de leche on them and form a sandwich with a second cake.
9. Dunk the sandwiched cakes in the sugar syrup.
10. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.
11. Place a chocolate leaf on top to garnish (optional)
    
    * Egg whites can be tricky. For detailed instructions on how to whisk egg whites visit this post at 101 Cook Books.

filling

1. To make dulce de leche pour the sweetened condensed milk in a glass bowl and microwave on medium for 10 minutes. Stop and stir every 2 minutes.

Syrup

1. Place the water and sugar in a small sauce pan.
2. Stir constantly until it begins to boil.
3. Cool down completely before submerging the cakes.