Cake - Torta or pastel?

Question

Which is the better word for cake in Spanish? "Torta", o "Pastel"?

Answer 1

Pastel. If you're anywhere near Texas/Mexico it's pastel. Torta is a sandwich.

This is a typical Mexican torta.

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wow, muy interestante! Your photo is making me hungry... - amykay, Jun 6, 2010

Answer 2

Perfect, that makes a lot of sense! So a wedding cake would be a "torta de boda"? ~AmyKay

Here's what the dictionary says about cake when you look up "wedding":

wedding cake -> tarta (f) or pastel (m) de boda, torta (f) de matrimonio (Andes), torta (f) de casamiento (RP)

I have seen both tarta and torta for cake in the spanish section of my Spanish dictionary - FELIZ77, Jun 6, 2010

when I put torta de boda in the translator here, it gave back "Wedding cake". - amykay, Jun 6, 2010

Don't get into the habit of using translators- they are sometimes wrong and can bad for learners - MeEncantanCarasSonrisas, Jun 6, 2010

dont confuse you FELIZ77 tarta is like a lemon pie with the same mass but the "inside of the tarta" (i don't know how to say that) can be a lot of diferents sweet ingredients - wirita, Jun 7, 2010

Answer 3

Parece que no hay diferencia entre el sentido de la palabra torta o pastel, por que esta la torta o pastel de cumpleaños, que al final es lo mismo. Por lo que creo que cualquiera de las dos estaría bien al traducirlo.
Aunque si, en otros países llaman al pastel como una masa con un relleno, como las empanadas, puede ser salada o dulce, frita o al horno.

Then of course to confuse matters, in some U.S. cities, a "pie" is a pizza!! A "pizza pie" is very common! Dios mio!! - amykay, Jun 6, 2010

pizza pie? is the same? or have some diferents ingredients? - wirita, Jun 7, 2010

Answer 4

I would say pastel D:

Answer 5

**There may be regional preferences affecting the choice of words, and **I could be wrong,**** but from my observatiom and experience of visiting Spain I would say that

El pastel = cake

la torta = cake/pie (large cake/pie )

I have noticed that both tarta and torta (are translated as) = cake in my Spanish Oxford Dictionary

Perfect, that makes a lot of sense! So a wedding cake would be a "torta de boda"? - amykay, Jun 6, 2010

Answer 6

Por que? Por que no torta? No razón?

Answer 7

pastel

Answer 8

The site I use for flashcards has pastel for cake & pie and the dictionary says the same. I saw a discussion on this same subject here and it was really confusing so I asked the native Spanish speaking workers at work and they definitely said pastel is cake {all 5 speakers} but these same workers said you do not use that word for pie. Three of them did not know what word to use so they asked the manager and he said "pie" the same as for English and they all agreed that was the best answer. My credit manager is Vietnamese and she also said the same thing "pie" since you cannot translate a Marie Calendar homemade apple pie with a word from another language so they use "pie".