Tarta de Santiago

This recipe is slightly different to my other posts, it is one of my favourite continental "cakes". It’s a very unconventional cake recipe, and it’s also gluten free, as it is primarily made from almonds an sugar, no flour in sight! I can remember visiting Santiago as a child, and trying my first slice of this cake in a small cafe down a narrow, little cobbled street in part of the Old Town, it was absolutely delicious.

I have been looking forward to posting this recipe for weeks, whilst researching for this post I found that most Tarta de Santiago recipes are very similar, but I think that the addition of cinnamon gives this recipe a slight edge.

Ingredients

250g ground almonds

250g golden caster sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 orange

6 medium eggs

1 tbsp brandy

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp icing sugar to decorate

Method

- Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/325F/Gas 3.

- Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

- Separate your eggs (whites in one bowl, yolks in another). 

- Whip the eggs yolks and sugar together (I used an electric mixer for this), continue to whip until they're pale and thick, gradually add in the lemon zest, orange zest, cinnamon, ground almonds and brandy. Continue to gently whip until completely combined.

- In the other bowl whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks (I used an electric whisk again for this, on a slow speed). Fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture, be careful not to lose too much air.

- Pour the mix into the prepared cake tin and bake for 45-50 minutes.

- Leave the cake to cool slightly in the tin before carefully removing it and finishing it off by adding the Cross of St James. I used a paper template (you can print a template off yourself using this link - cruz-de-santiago.jpg) and sprinkled over some icing sugar.

- Enjoy!

If you haven’t tried this cake before and you make this recipe then please let me know your thoughts! I think it’s delicious, and I’d love to hear what you all think.

♥️