Chilean Brazo de Reina is a simple rolled Dulce de Leche Cake that brings a soft sponge cake together with creamy milk caramel filling for one addicting treat!
Chilean Brazo de Reina
Chilean Brazo de ReinaBrazo de Reina is a Chielan version of a Swiss roll cake that is filled with creamy, caramel-y dulce de leche.
It is a very simple, yet elegant dessert that is most commonly served with the traditional 5 pm snack in Chile (also called elevenses).
The name brazo de reina literally translates to “queen’s arm”. We’re not sure what queen the cake was named after, but she must have enjoyed elegant desserts!
Making A Dulce De Leche Cake
What really makes brazo de reina stand out from other Swiss roll cakes is the filling. It is traditionally filled with Manjar blanco, also known as dulce de leche.
Dulce de leche is a sweet and nutty milk caramel that is delicious with any sweet treat!
You can find cans of dulce de leche in you local Hispanic market. But making homemade dulce de leche is as simple as getting a can of sweetened condensed milk and boiling some water.
So, check out our recipe and give it a try!
How To Make An Easy Swiss Roll: Preparing the Pan and Batter
A Swiss roll cake is a simple sponge cake that is made in a large baking sheet so it is very thin and can be rolled easily.
Swiss rolls are impressive cakes to serve, but once you know the basic technique for rolling a Swiss roll cake, like our dulce de leche cake today, you’ll want to be rolling cakes all the time!
The first important parts of making a good Swiss roll happen before it goes into the oven. You should grease your baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. Then, grease the parchment paper.
All this greasing ensures that when we go to get the cake out of the pan it won’t stick.
Second, the batter for this dulce de leche cake is very light and airy. It needs to be spread onto your parchment paper very gently, but quickly. As you spread the batter, make sure you get it as even as you can. The more even the batter is spread, the more even your cake layer will be.
How To Make An Easy Swiss Roll: Making Sure The Cake Doesn’t Tear
Finally, the MOST important part of rolling a Swiss roll is what happens when you take the cake out of the oven. The cake should be springy yet firm to the touch, and once the cake has cooled slightly, but is still warm, you need to invert it onto a powdered sugar-dusted tea towel.
This is probably the trickiest part of making a Swiss roll, and we like to do it by dusting the top of the cake with powdered sugar, laying our towel over the cake, and then laying a cooling rack, upside down, over the towel. Then we can flip the cake (without getting powdered sugar everywhere) and gently remove the warm pan and parchment paper from the cake.
Now, the cake gets rolled up from the short end in the towel to cool. By rolling the cake while it is warm, it is still nice and pliable, so it won’t tear. Letting the cake cool in the rolled shape trains it to want to hold that shape (without tearing) after it has been filled.
It might sound complicated, but the only way to learn how to make a Swiss roll cake is to try it! Even if your first brazo de reina doesn’t turn out perfectly, you’ll still have a delicious combination of creamy dulce de leche and tender sponge cake, so you really don’t have anything to lose!
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Brazo de Reina (Chilean Dulce de Leche Cake)
Chilean Brazo de Reina is a simple rolled Dulce de Leche Cake that brings a soft sponge cake together with creamy milk caramel filling for one addicting treat!
Yield: 1 (12 inch) cake roll
Prep Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins
Cook Time12 minutes mins
Total Time1 hour hr 42 minutes mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: South American
Servings: 8 - 10 people
Author: Sarah - Curious Cuisiniere
Ingredients
For The Cake
- 5 large eggs, at room temperature*, separated
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ ccup sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 scant cup sifted unbleached all-purpose flour (roughly 3.5 oz of flour)**
- 2 tsp baking powder
For The Filling
- 1 (13.4 oz) can dulce de leche
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350F.
Grease a 13x18 inch baking sheet (half sheet size) and line it with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper.
Place the egg whites in a large bowl. With an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the salt and continue beating until you have stiff peaks when you turn off the mixer and lift out the beaters. Set aside.
In another large bowl, beat the egg yolks until pale. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla extract.
In a small bowl sift together your 1 cup of already sifted flour and baking powder. (Sifting them together will incorporate the baking powder into the flour without packing it down. This flour mixture needs to be very light and airy when it gets mixed with the egg yolks).
Add the flour mixture to the egg yolks and gently mix with a spatula. (Your batter will be a bit stiff at this point.)
Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the flour and egg yolk mixture, adding 1/4 of the beaten egg whites at a time and folding until each addition is just incorporated. (It is normal for the batter to become a little lumpy as you first introduce the beaten egg whites, just continue gently folding to mix the two together until the batter is uniform.)
Spread the batter evenly over the parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Bake for 9-12 minutes, until the cake is springy to the touch and lightly golden. (This cake can over-bake quickly, so keep a good eye on it towards the end of baking time.)
Remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
Gently loosen the edges of the cake that might be stuck to the baking sheet. Dust the cake with powdered sugar and place a clean tea towel over the cake, so you have some extra towel hanging off of one of the short ends of the cake. Place a second cooling rack, upside down, on top of the tea towel and invert the cake onto the second cooling rack (and tea towel). Remove the baking sheet and gently un-peel the parchment paper from the cake.
Flip the extra towel over the short end of the cake and gently roll the cake up from the short end.
Place the towel-wrapped, rolled cake on a wire rack to cool completely (1-2 hours).
Once the cake is cool, carefully unroll it.
Spread the dulce de leche over the cake. Re-roll the cake and place it on a serving platter.
Dust the finished cake with powdered sugar, if desired, immediately before serving.
Notes
*Take eggs out of the refrigerator 1 hour before you plan to use them, so that they can come to room temperature.
**Too much flour can cause this cake to turn out dry, as some readers have commented. Using a scale is your best way to ensure the cake turns out well.
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Sarah - Curious Cuisiniere
Sarah is one of Curious Cuisiniere’s founding duo. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.
www.curiouscuisiniere.com/about/
