The Recipe
Makes: 1 x 22cm cake
Preparation: 15 minutes
Baking Time: 40-45 minutes
“The Tarta de Santiago is an almond cake that is found on the menu of many local restaurants and is seen in the windows of many Galician bakeries.”
There was a time, in 2011 when I started a blog on WordPress.
It was for me to document my baking journey and experiments. Over time it became a mix of food and a travel blog with a lot of unedited photographs.
It is now twelve years later, and I have built this platform that I am really proud of.
So here is the very first post I put out into the world, on this day in 2011.
“I have been thinking about my first post for weeks. What should I start with and how should I word it….. Hmmm. I have a few entries saved on my laptop and then I thought shoot! Stop procrastinating and post!”
So here it is – My boss’s husband needed me to make a cake for a party and it had to be Spanish themed. Other than creme Catalan which was the first dessert that came to mind I decided on the Tarta de Santiago or St James Cake.
On my travels through Northern Spain, I stayed in the Galician capital, Santiago de Compostela, in the province of A Coruna. The cathedral of Santiago del Compostela is a destination for many tourists each year that take on the catholic pilgrimage route that is about 780km from start to finish.
The Tarta de Santiago is an almond cake that is found on the menu of many local restaurants and is seen in the windows of many Galician bakeries. It is appealing and patriotic as it is decorated with a dusting of icing sugar over a stencil of the Cross of Saint James. It’s a fairly easy cake to make and super delicious and moist to eat…
INGREDIENTS
250g crushed almonds (almond meal is fine as is hazelnut meal for a richer flavour)
250g un refined caster sugar (if unavailable, regular caster is fine)
5 medium free range eggs
zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
2 tablespoons of icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon of natural almond essence (optional)
butter for greasing the cake tin
METHOD
Pour the sugar, almonds (or hazelnuts if using), cinnamon, almond essence (if using), and zest into a bowl. Mix well until combined
2. Crack the eggs in a separate bowl one at a time ( I do this just in case I accidentally drop in shell or if the egg is bad. This prevents you from throwing out the whole mixture and reduces the frustration of foraging into the mixture to find that rogue shell!!)
3. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well until incorporated.
4. Pour the batter into the lined cake tin and bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees celsius) for about 40-50 minutes. The time this cake will take to bake will depend on your oven. When a skewer is inserted into the centre of the cake, it should come out clean. If it still has gooey batter on it, give it another 5 minutes in the oven.
6. Whle the cake is baking away nicely in the oven, use this time to draw and cut out your stencil.
7. When the cake is taken out of the oven cool for about 5 minutes in the pan and then unmould it and put it on a cooling rack
8. When the cake has completely cooled ( I had to speed up this process by propping a fan next to the cake..), pop on the paper stencil and sprinkle icing sugar all over the top of the cake.
