Burrera cake recipe

The torta burrera de pan is the holy grail of popular Venezuelan tortas. Although it is very rich in flavors and textures, its very name tells us what type of preparation it is: a rustic cake, made without much technique and with a rough appearance. It is the cake that was made in the villages among the peasants or in the wealthy kitchens for the house service personnel.

For this reason, there is not a single recipe for torta burrera, since it was prepared with what was at hand. In fact, there is a version of this dessert in which wheat flour is replaced by old bread. However, there is an ingredient that should not be missing: papelón, also known as piloncillo, chancaca or panela in other parts of Latin America.

Do you already have paper at home? Then you just need to locate the rest of the ingredients in your pantry and follow the instructions in this article to know how to make burrera cake. Let’s do it!

Ingredients to make Burrera cake:

250 grams of paper
300 grams of water
375 grams of all-purpose flour

1 dessert spoon of baking powder
3 eggs
240 milliliters of sweet wine

150 grams of butter or margarine
1 dessert spoon of anise
1 dessert spoon of cloves

1 dessert spoon of ground cinnamon
2 cinnamon sticks
50 grams of raisins

How to make Torta burrera:

The base of the burrera bread cake is a very thick papelón syrup. In fact, it is the base of many popular sweets such as coconut kisses, since sugar was a luxury in those days.
To prepare the syrup, grate the paper or cut it into very small pieces, so it will dissolve faster in the water.
In a small pot, add the papelón or piloncillo and the water.

Also add the cinnamon stick and half of the anise and cloves
Bring to a boil over low heat until the mixture thickens and, when draining a teaspoon, the last drops take time to fall.
This can take about 20 minutes, but this time is just a guide, the best guide is the consistency of the syrup.

You may need to remove it from the heat every once in a while because the foam rises and may spill over.
Meanwhile, grind the rest of the cloves and anise and add it to the ground cinnamon
Also take the opportunity to separate and measure the rest of the ingredients.

To remove any impurities and large spices, let the syrup cool and strain it into the container where you will make the burrera cake mixture.
Do not wait for it to cool completely because it will be more difficult to strain it. In fact, if there is a lot of thick syrup left on the walls of the pot, it is best to heat the wine a little in the same pot to dissolve that paper.
This is the time to preheat the oven to 180 – 200 °C. Add the ground spices to the paper, which already has the liquor, and also the flour. Mix them up a bit

Add the eggs. To get the texture of that time, we prepare the cake without much technique. For this reason, we add the eggs together and beat until integrated.
Add the butter. The original recipe could contain lard instead of butter, a product that is much more expensive and difficult to obtain. Mix very well.
Flour the raisins to add them to the mixture. This way, the raisins won’t sink to the bottom of the cake as it bakes.

Add them to the mixture and stir very well.
Pour the preparation into a previously buttered and floured
Bake for about 30 minutes. It can be a little more, it all depends on your oven. Make sure the toothpick comes out of the mixture clean to confirm it’s done.