Mexican Baker Teaches Us That A Pastel By Any Other Name Will Taste As Sweet
10 December 2007, 12:00 PM. By Guanabee Staff
A Mexican baker would like you to know that she understands every Latino has a specific preference when it comes to cakes. And she’s willing and able to cater to all your confectionary desires:
A typical Puerto Rican cake is doused in brandy and filled with sweetened pineapple. A Mexican cake will sit in a mixture of four types of milk for hours to get its moist texture. [Ed. note: We just had, like, seventeen orgasms reading that.]
Whew. Please continue. Slowly:
Yolanda Maldonado, a Mexican baker and owner of International Cakes at Live Oak Center Plaza in DeBary, has mastered the art of making specialty cakes to suit the palates of Latinos — a skill that reflects the diversity within the Hispanic culture in Volusia County.
“From the time they say ‘cake, bizcocho or pastel,’ I want to know where they are from,” Maldonado said at her bakery. “Each region has a different way of preparing the cakes.”
We call them “cake,” pronounced “kay,” and like ours drenched with rum and covered with fondant. And smeared all over a skinny boy. But enough about last night:
Depending on the region of Latin America, customers call the cakes and ingredients by different names. Dominicans call a type of cake frosting “suspiro,” a word that also describes a sigh.
In Spanish, Mexicans and Salvadorans call a cake “pastel,” while Puerto Ricans and Dominicans call it “bizcocho.” And for Colombians, Argentines and other South Americans, it’s called a “torta.”
Jesus Christ. We need a cigarette.
Baker makes cakes to reflect Hispanic diversity [Daytona Beach News-Journal]
(25) 
Post Your Comment
Did you know you can now share a link, image or video?
Click to submit your own notas.
Just further evidence that the Magnolia Bakery is but a pale, but still yummy, shadow of the milky sweet goodness that keeps gente-types of all stripes alive during these cruel winter months.
It’s pronounced ka-ke.
i’ll show you a bizcoochi.
@ pocho guey: They taste infinitely better after a night in the fridge. Trust.
@ Diego: Agreed! It’s all about the ka-ke in my family!
“A typical Puerto Rican cake is doused in brandy and filled with sweetened pineapple…”
Um, no. I wonder where she got the recipe. Not my family, obvs. The brandy part she got right, though. The cheaper the better, too. I’m hungry.
@…dijo Alex: I believe. Everything tastes better after a night in the fridge.
Queque. And yes, Alex, SO much better after a night in the fridge.
@Diego and Latin_Princess: Um…I thought it was something more along the lines of ‘que-kee’. At least that was my Abuelita’s rendition.
I’m from the ‘que-kee” clan myself.
“We call them “cake,” pronounced “kay,”… “kay”? What Latino planet are you from? Most unusual…
@ rebekah: I’m from a strange and wondrous world called Miami. “Kay” is a bastardization of “cake.” Often mumbled while frosting is being shoved in my mouth by a man wearing high heels.
TMI?
I still owe you a PBR, cupcake.
BTW, I don’t think Mexicans are very good at making desserts; tres leches cake is so overrated and pan de huevo is hard and the sugar always falls off. I do like cochitos, though.
@rebekah: That would be a very Mexican-influenced planet, where over-pronunciation in certain respects is elevated to high art.
Aaaaaaahhh, “Miami”… so do you sound like those girls on that Bounty Hunter show?
Actually, no.
We all speak exactly like Al Pacino in Scarface.
@ pocho_guey_al_norte: I love ‘que-kee’. Cute! I wonder if I can get my Tex-Mex family to stop saying ka-ke (pronounced kay-que)?
we say “pon-que”. anyhooot.. i’m drooling at the thought of cold tres leches cake .. mmmmmmmmmmmm.
@rebekah: So true. Mexico–not known for it’s desserts. Leche quemada or cajeta rules, though.
Flan or churros anyone?
Capirotada?
Yep. In Miami it’s “Kay”. Or probably more accurately, “Quei”. Pronounced in your best Tony Montana. You godda proleng wi’ dat, Meng?
@rebekah: tres leches is OVERRATED? woman, no! my mom’s tres leches is moan-worthy. seriously.
then again, maybe you have a point: my mom is puerto rican.
As for Mexican desserts, most of them are a variation of Spanish ones (even the huesos de muerto). I guess the most mexican thing would be the spicy tamarindo chupachups…….
What about Pink Cake? That stuff’s everywhere in south Texas. I have family members that don’t speak much english at all, but they still call the stuff “pink cake”. Mmmm… gonna have to go down to the panaderia soon and get me some…