Tarta de Santiago

Tarta de Santiago (or St James’ cake) is as typical as octopus Galician Style. It dates back to the Middle Ages, although I don’t know its origin, and is made entirely out of almonds, so, if you have a nut allergy, this is not the cake for you.

It is very tasty and visually, although simple, the stencilled Cross of St James gives it a striking effect against the white of the icing sugar.

When I was a kid, we would go out to eat every Sunday as a family. My mum would say “Get ready. We’ll be leaving shortly” and that is what we had to do. No idea where we were going but we knew it was somewhere to eat.

Tarta de Santiago (with a side of vanilla ice-cream) as well as homemade crème caramel was one of my favourites desserts on those Sundays. We usually went to the typical restaurant with homemade food cooked by the grandma or mother of the owner (usually these restaurants were family owned and run by the whole family. Literally) and they were set in pretty rural areas. Sometimes they had a private room and we would take that if it was free.

I remember being happy and eating very well. Lots of different smells (all good) coming out of the kitchen and the lady coming out of the kitchen to ask if we liked the food. Very personal touch. Makes me smile now.

So please, enjoy this recipe that comes all the way from my kitchen to you.

You can find the step by step video to this recipe here:

Tarta de Santiago

Servings: 8
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins approx
Difficulty: Easy
Rating: stars
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Credit: The Spaniard’s Kitchen

Ingredients

250grs Ground Almonds

250grs White Sugar

Lemon Zest from 1 Lemon

4 Eggs

50grs Icing Sugar
Butter for Greasing

Directions

1. Beat the eggs in a bowl, add the sugar and cream it.
2. Add the lemon zest and the almond and mix.
3. Grease or line a round tin and pour the mix in.
4. Pop into a pre-heated oven at 190 degrees for about 30 mins. Check around the 20 mins mark just to see how it is doing.
5. Make sure you don’t overcook this cake as it will get a bitter taste if it does.
6. Remove from the oven and let it cool down.
7. Once cold you can remove the sides of the tin,
8. Get a printable St James’ Cross or stencil and place on the centre of the cake.
9. Sprinkle icing sugar all over the cake then remove the stencil carefully.
10. Serve hot and enjoy with a side of vanilla ice-cream or custard (as we are in the UK and everyone LOVES custard on anything sweet!)