Tarta de Santiago
An almond cake with no flour in it, stencilled with the cross of Saint James. Fifty minutes and four ingredients.
Photograph credit: Tarta de Santiago by jlastras · CC BY 2.0 · Flickr
Tarta de Santiago, Step by Step
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Heat the oven to 180°C / 355°F and butter and line a 23 cm springform tin.
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Whisk the eggs and caster sugar with an electric whisk for 5 minutes, until pale, thick and holding a ribbon on the surface.
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Whisk in the lemon and orange zest, the cinnamon, almond extract and salt.
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Fold in the ground almonds in three additions, stopping as soon as each disappears.
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Scrape into the tin and level the top.
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Bake 35 minutes, until golden and a skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs.
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Cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool completely.
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Cut a cross of Saint James from paper and lay it on the cake.
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Dust heavily with icing sugar, then lift the stencil straight up.
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Serve at room temperature.
Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Pan and tin size.
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Tips for Making Tarta de Santiago
- Five minutes of whisking. It is the only lift the cake gets.
- Fold the almonds in, do not beat them.
- Lift the stencil straight up or you smudge the cross.
Serving Suggestions
- A glass of sweet sherry
- Strong coffee
- Fresh orange segments
Keeping and Reheating
Keeps 5 days in a tin and improves after a day. Freezes 2 months.
Tarta de Santiago: Questions and Answers
How long does Tarta de Santiago take to make?
15 minutes of preparation and 35 minutes of cooking, plus 20 minutes of cooling, so allow 1 hour 10 minutes from start to finish. The method also needs time for cooling completely, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 8.
Tarta de Santiago Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .