Tarta de Santiago
Spanish-Inspired Almond & Hazelnut Cake
César Pérez
•
May 27, 2025
Tarta de Santiago is a strikingly beautiful yet simple almond cake that originated in medieval Galicia, Spain. Named after St. James, the patron saint of Spain, it is traditionally adorned with his cross. Although it’s typically made entirely from almond flour, I took some creative liberties by mixing in equal parts hazelnut flour—don’t tell the Spanish. My first encounter with this dessert was in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where many local bakeries uphold Spanish baking traditions. Typically, the cooled cake is dusted with powdered sugar over a stencil of a St James cross. Once you remove the stencil, it reveals the cross shape (you can search for and download an image to use as a stencil). This is not a necessary step, though, and the cake is otherwise straightforward to make, requiring no special equipment other than a tart pan, which imparts beautiful ridged edges.
Ingredients (10)
Ingredients (10)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 °F°. In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together eggs (4), caster sugar (1 cup), and vanilla bean paste (1 tsp) until slightly pale and aerated.
With a spoon or rubber spatula, stir in salt (1 tsp), lemon zest (1 Tbsp), cinnamon (½ tsp), almond flour (1 cup), and hazelnut flour (1). Set aside.
Cut out a circle of parchment paper to fit the bottom of a 10-inch tart pan with a removal bottom. Grease the tart pan generously with butter. Place the parchment circle in the bottom of the pan and grease that generously with butter as well.
Pour batter into your prepared tart pan and place that on a baking sheet. Place into your preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove cake from the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack for at least half an hour. Press up on the bottom of the tart pan, releasing the cake from the tart pan. Transfer cake back onto the cooling rack and if using the stencil, place in the middle of the cake. Dust generously with powdered sugar and remove stencil carefully to reveal the iconic cross in the center of your Tarta de Santiago.
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