Douro Port-Soaked Cake

Bolo Borrachão do Douro is a tall cake, often baked in a chimney or fluted mould, whose batter includes eggs, extra yolks, butter, sugar, flour and an initial measure of Port. It may contain chopped walnuts and is sometimes finished with grated coconut.

The defining step comes as it leaves the oven: while still hot, the cake is repeatedly drenched with a thin syrup of sugar, water and more Port. The crumb absorbs the liquid, darkens and becomes moist without entirely losing its cake structure. That saturation—the cake becomes figuratively ‘drunk’—gives borrachão its name.