St. James Tarta de Santiago

History

The traditional dessert for St. James’ Day is the tarta de Santiago, which translates to “St. James’ cake.” While St. James is the patron of Spain, Galicia specifically claims him as its saint and is the origin of this treat. The tarta is a one-layer cake made from almond flour, eggs, sugar, almond extract, citrus, and cinnamon. Over top of the cake is a dusting of icing sugar and the emblem of St. James’ cross, or the cruz de Santiago. 

The cross combines what is known as the cross flitchy (the pointed lower limb) and cross fleuries (the embellished side and upper arms), and it was the emblem of the twelfth-century Spanish Order of Santiago. This military order promoted Christianity and protected pilgrims traveling the St. James Way. Its other objective was to guard against Muslims and remove them from Spain.  

St. James’ cross has long since remained a recognizable emblem and is flown to this day in Spain on July 25^th, the feast of St. James. 

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Tarta de Santiago

This is an easy-to-assemble cake as it is, but if you prefer to go the more traditional method, you can skip separating the eggs and just beat them whole. It is faster, but be aware that this method will yield a more dense cake.

Now, the “cruz of the matter”: how do you get the cross detail in the middle of your cake? You have a few options here. If you don’t consider yourself to be a very artistic person, you might consider investing in something like this stencil on Etsy. Another easier option would be to print out this image and simply cut it out! Just be sure to resize it properly with your printer settings so that it isn’t too large or too small. Finally, if you’re ambitious, you could draw the cross by hand before cutting it out and placing it on the cake. Any way you go, place the cross on the cake, sift sugar overtop, and remove the stencil!

Ingredients

5 large eggs, separated

¾ C brown sugar

zest of 1 orange

1 tsp almond extract

1 ⅓ C almond flour

½ tbsp cinnamon

¼ C confectioner’s sugar

Instructions

1. Separate the egg whites and whisk in a stand mixer until soft peaks form. In a separate bowl, beat together the yolks and sugar until pale. Into the yolk mixture, fold in the cinnamon, orange zest, and almond extract. 
2. Combine the two mixtures and sift in the almond flour. Gently fold it in, being careful not to deflate all of the air that you whipped into the eggs in step 1.
3. Once the batter is smooth, pour it into the cake pan and bake at 350° F for about 30 minutes. The top should turn golden brown, and a toothpick should come out clean.
4. Allow the cake to cool completely before dusting with confectioner’s sugar. Place your cut-out of the cruz de Santiago in the middle of the cake and sift over sugar. Remove the stencil and enjoy!