Tarta de Santiago

Ingredients

• 250 g almonds, finely ground
• 250 g white sugar
• 5 egg
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp aguardente
• 20 g butter, for the tin
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar

Method

1. 1.

   Prepare the tin — Heat the oven to 175 °C. Butter a 23 cm springform tin generously and line the base with a disc of baking paper — the batter has no flour to hold it together, so it must release cleanly.

2. 2.

   Whip eggs to the ribbon — Beat the eggs with the sugar and salt for about 5 minutes, until pale, thick and doubled, and a ribbon of batter holds its shape for a moment on the surface.

3. 3.

   Fold in the almonds — Fold in the ground almonds in three additions, together with the lemon and orange zest, the cinnamon and the aguardente. Use a spatula and cut down through the middle rather than stirring, so the air you just beat in stays there.

4. 4.

   Bake until deep gold — Pour into the tin, level the top and bake for 35-40 minutes, until deep gold, slightly domed and set with a faint wobble in the centre; a skewer should come out with moist crumbs, not clean.

5. 5.

   Cool in the tin — Cool completely in the tin, at least an hour. The crumb is fragile while warm and firms up into its characteristic dense, moist texture only as it cools, so do not rush the ring off.

6. 6.

   Stencil the cross — Cut a Cross of Saint James out of paper or card, lay it flat on the cooled cake, dust thickly with icing sugar through a small sieve, then lift the stencil straight up so the outline stays crisp.