Tarta Santiago

by Emma Landeira Vega, VIC

Typical in Galicia (northwest of Spain), eaten all year, in every familiar celebration, though it is specially prepared on Santiago Day (25th of July). It is quite a flat cake.

Preparation

10'

Cooking

30'

People

Difficulty

4 eggs

250 g almond meal (preferably marcona)

Zest of ½ lemon (optional)

Santiago cross stencil. You can find plenty on the internet.

250 g sugar

½ tsp cinnamon (optional)

Icing sugar to sprinkle on top

Heat your oven to 180 degrees.
Prepare a 24 – 26 cm loose bottom round tin with, with parchment on the bottom and rub the sides with a little butter.
In a medium bowl whisk the 4 eggs with 250 g sugar until fluffy and sugar is completely dissolved, don’t need to double in volume, you can do it by hand or with a stand mixer.
Add to the eggs’ mixture the almond meal, cinnamon and lemon zest mixing with a spatula by hand, until homogeneous, trying not to overmix.
Pour the batter in the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. It might rise a lot in the oven and deflate when cools down, but that is ok, you will get a crackled top layer, it is fine.
Let it cool for 10-15 minutes and then remove carefully the outer ring.
Make yourself a Santiago cross in cardboard or paper to lay on top of the cake before dusting generously with icing sugar.
Lift the Santiago cross carefully so the silhouette is clean and it is ready to eat!

If you have a food processor, you can prepare your own almond meal from raw almonds, you will certainly taste the difference.