I don’t know where I saw this cake first, probably in one of my endless recipe surfing on the internet. The real version of this cake is called “Tarta de Santiago” meaning cake of St. James and it always has imprint of the Cross of Saint James (cruz de Santiago) on top. This one I made here is quite close to this cake.

 

 

There are several different recipes for this cake. They are not too different than each other, mostly same ingredients, but different amounts.

 

 

 

The flour part of this cake is, as the name tells, made of almonds. I decided not to use all as finely ground almonds. Instead, I used about 1/3 of the flour as coarsely ground almonds. Also, I used both orange and lemon zests, instead of just one of those as suggested in most of the recipes. This added a very rich flavour.

 

 

The resulting cake is quite dense but moist. I prefer to put a thin layer of powdered sugar because I don’t like the powdered sugar too heavy. It gives too raw taste which is not pleasant. Next time I will put an imprint of something too, like stars for example! Enjoy your cake!
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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty:  ★☆☆ (Easy)
(makes 1 cake, in a cake pan which is 24cm in diameter)

 

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

 

260 gr. almond flour (I used 80 gr. of this as coarsely ground almonds)
Zest of 1 orange
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 eggs
260 gr. granulated white sugar

 

Butter to grease the pan
powdered sugar to spread on top

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 24cm cake pan and put a baking paper on the bottom.

 

2. Mix almond flour, zest of orange, zest of lemon and cinnamon. Put aside.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Put 6 eggs in a mixing bowl and whisk a little. Add sugar and whisk more until they are incorporated.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Fold flour mixture into egg mixture and mix well until all ingredients are well mixed and no lumps or dry parts are left.

 

 

 

 

5. Transfer cake batter to prepared cake pan. Tap the pan on your counter / table a couple of times to remove any air bubbles. Bake in the oven, in medium rack, for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

 

 

 

6. Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 10-15 minutes, or even more if you have time. When it cools down, take it out of the pan and transfer to serving plate. Spread some powdered sugar on top (I recommend a thin layer). Enjoy your cake with some fresh tea or coffee!