There’s a dessert called a dot cake that’s become a social media sensation, drawing long lines and plenty of attention online.
For lots of Texans, especially those who grew up visiting Mexican bakeries or perhaps who come from a Mexican family themselves, the reaction has been less “what’s that?” and more “wait a minute, people are standing in line for this? Haven’t we been eating this for years?”
Now this viral cake bears a striking resemblance to cortadillo, a longtime panadería staple topped with pink icing and rainbow sprinkles.
So is this a case of a beloved tradition getting a new audience or a familiar story of a cultural favorite being rediscovered without a whole lot of recognition?
Mando Rayo, host of the Tacos of Texas podcast, joined with his take on the debate.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Mando Rayo: Yeah, we actually call that Columbusing.
It’s really when American and traditionally majority culture or white people discover something that’s been around for a long time.
I always reference the flat taco, which is a tostada. Or maybe saying, “oh, I just made this new product. It’s called spa water.” But really, it is an aguas frescas recipe. I’m like, what’s going on here?
Texas Standard: From what you can tell, are they actually the same dessert, or are there meaningful differences between the two?
You know, to be honest, they’re very similar. There’s just like a little bit of difference. Basically cortadillo is this Mexican pastry. It’s usually like a sheet cake topped with pink icing and then the sprinkles.
And in Texas, we call that pink cake. So if you grew up in Texas, like anywhere along the border or San Antonio, that’s just like one of those things, right?
I mean, the dot cake, they put it in a cup, and then they do do like a little white frosting in the middle. But basically, it’s the same thing.
And sometimes they go viral, for whatever reason. And when you look at it, when you start to study it, it’s like, oh, well, that’s not a new thing. What they’re doing is taking something that’s been around for a long time and marketing as something different — and in a sense, you know, taking, and you never know how they came up with it, right?
And so there’s some history there, right, where people actually, “hey, let me go peep into a bakery. Let me go in Abuela’s kitchen and grab those recipes and their style.” So I think that’s part of it, you know, and it’s like this buildup of what’s been happening.
That’s just it, because it seems like there’s a big role that social media is playing here. Because on the one hand, it’s not clear to me whether someone has rolled this out as if it’s something completely new, or if it just kind of takes on a kind of life of its own once it hits TikTok – people who have not experienced cortadillo, all of a sudden they think it’s something that’s brand-new, something to discover and “oh, let’s bring our friends,” right?
I’m wondering what this says about the role social media plays.
Oh, yeah, for sure. You know, I think there’s a big role that I think social media plays. So the idea is like, oh, well, it’s a new trend, and everybody’s got to go get it, and get the views and the likes because you actually went to the shop to go get this dot cake.
Then there’s the idea around like you know there’s a lot of people — you know Mexican, Latin people, Latinos — that they’re like, “wait a minute; I see that.” And they’re also vocal, and so they want to make sure that like “hey, you know, this is a little too similar, because we grew up with this; my grandma made it” or the local bakery made it, whether it’s in Mexico, along the border here in Texas.
And it’s like, y’all got to make those connections. You got to make the dots connect, man!
Well, so what’s your advice if someone hears about this dot cake? What should you do if you want to taste the real deal?
I’d say go to your local panadería. Go to Mi Tierra out in San Antonio. Go to La Guadalupana in Houston. Go to Joe’s Bakery. Go to the Bowie Bakery in El Paso.
Go and see all those treats that we all grew up with so that way you can kind of like experience this firsthand. You know, I looked it up, and the cortadillo has been around for more than a century.
If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.