I recently wrote an article about baking in Spanish. I was pretty confident that I have covered the most important stuff. However, the other day I saw a cake mix box with Spanish instructions and a couple of Spanglish words surprised me.
Look at the picture in the right:
Never in my life have I heard the word “quequitos.” Once I said it aloud, it made sense, in a very Spanglish sort of way. “queq” sounds like “cake,” more or less and the use of the diminutive “ito” would make it a small cake. However, every Spanish speaker I have every spoken to simply used the word “cupcake” or maybe “pastelito.” I did some googling and found that this is an accepted colloquial word in Mexico. I’m still surprised this slang word made it onto the back of a cake mix box.
The word “betún” also surprised me. Before this box, I had only heard the word betún to refer to shoe polish, which doesn’t sound like a tasty topping to a cake. However, some research showed that this is an acceptable way to say icing in Chile and Mexico. In other countries, however, you’ll want to stick with glaseado, azúcar glaseado, or glasé.
Have you heard any other strange baking terms? Just leave me a note in the comments.
Check out these other English Spanish articles.