What Is Spanish Almond Cake?
Spanish almond cake or widely known as tarta de Santiago (St. James cake) is a traditional Galician cake. Galicia is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
This cake doesn't have any type of flour in it, making it a great option for those who practise gluten-free diet.
The cake can either be with a base or not. The base can be a shortcut pastry or puff pastry.
It is typically dusted with icing sugar with an imprint of Santiago's (St. James) cross.
Today I'm sharing with you my take on this delicious traditional Spanish almond cake without the base.
Let's start.
What Makes It Special?
Simple Ingredients
What I find so special about this cake is the simplicity of its ingredients.
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The main ingredients for this cake are almond meal, eggs and sugar. Yep, extremely basic ingredients, which of course make this cake a super easy one to prepare.
Simple Ratio
Apart from only having 3 main ingredients, each ingredient is the same weight to the other. You can see it in my written recipe below.
Having that simple and basic guide (you know I don't like to be bound by rules in cooking), the easiest way to start building your Spanish almond cake is by determining the amount of eggs that you will use.
1 large egg = 50 g.
Meaning using 1 large egg will also need 50 g of almond meal and 50 g of sugar.
Simple!
Simple Unique Look
As I mentioned earlier, this cake is dusted with icing sugar with an imprint of Santiago's cross on its top surface.
You can also make an imprint of a scallop shell. Or with no imprint at all. Your choice.
My Spanish Almond Cake
For this recipe, I'm keeping it simple like the typical traditional recipes out there, using the same amount of the main ingredients.
Typically, only a bit of lemon zest is added, but I like to add a good amount of it, like in my lemon cake with almonds, together with some clementine zest.
I love baking with lemon, clementine, and orange zest during this time of year.
I'm also adding a bit of cinnamon powder and salt. I think a touch of salt is always amazing when a recipe uses quite amount of sugar, like in this case.
If you love almond cake, I would really recommend you to try this Spanish almond cake.
Before You Go
Do you want to see more nuts-related recipes? Perhaps you can check these out:
You can look for more recipes in my recipe page.
Video
📖 Recipe
Spanish Almond Cake
Ingredients
- 3 eggs , room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar (150 gr)
- 1 ½ cup almond meal (150 gr)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Zest of 1 lemon
- zest of 1 clementine
- icing sugar , for dusting on top
Instructions
- Add eggs and sugar into a bowl and whisk until the mixture turns pale.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, except for icing sugar and using a spatula, gently fold everything until well combine.
- Pour batter into a 7 inch (18 cm) springform pan that has been buttered and floured. Bake in a preheated oven at 360ºF (180ºC) for 40 minutes or until golden brown and fully cooked.
- Cool completely. Place the Santiago cross cut out on top and dust generous amount of icing sugar all over the cake. Carefully remove the cut out. Slice and serve, enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
The nutrition facts provided are an estimate per serving. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Janet says
This cake is delicious and so quick and easy to make. My seven year old grandson has celiac disease and this is by far his favourite cake.
Ann Willis Scott says
Lovely recipe. I plan to make it again right now in small cupcake size.. I hope it works!.
Bea says
Happy that you liked it, Ann! Yes it'll work, just adjust the baking time. Have fun!
Janet says
This cake is delicious. So moist and flavourful and so easy to make.
Bea says
Yeay! Thanks Janet!
Karen says
This sounds perfect for a Spanish themed party we're attending. I have a 9" spring form pan. Should I double this recipe to use that pan?
Bea says
Hi Karen! I think making 1.5 batch is enough for your pan. Hope it helps and have fun!
Maria says
Recipe sounds easy and delicious..
I am wondering, do you not need baking powder? Will it rise, almond meal being heavy?
Thank you.
Bea says
Hi Maria! In this "old style" recipe, the leavening agent is eggs and sugar (that's whisked until pale), instead of baking powder. It's not going to rise like a sponge cake but the texture is soft. Many have made it and loved it. Hope it helps.
Meethi says
Great recipe. I had saved this recipe for a long time and I wanted to bake this for New Year eve party. When I was getting ready for making it only then I realized that there is no butter/oil. I got a little skeptical. Nevertheless I made it and was so happy that I did. It is such a good cake, everyone in the party loved it. Such a moist and perfectly sweet cake. I doubled the recipe and made in 8" pan, baked it on 350C for about 35 min.
Thanks for this delicious recipe!!
Meethi says
Sorry forgot to give the rating. All 5 stars from my side 🙂
Bea says
Well, thank you so much, Meethi! Do check around here for more cake recipes, I'm sure you're going to love them ❤️.
Bea says
Super happy to know that you gave it a try anyway, Meethi!
Bonnie Adlam says
Very easy to make.Everyone loves it. I sprinkle the top with turbinado sugar and finely chopped sliced almonds before I bake it and skip the powdered sugar.
Bea says
That sounds delicious, Bonnie! Thanks for your feedback.
James says
Many thanks for this recipe! I made this and it tasted great... but there were two distinct layers of the cake after baking, as if it separated and the almond flour "cakey" part had a quarter inch layer of gooey-er part on top (kind of like a pecan pie filling texture).
Any thoughts on why or how to prevent that?
Bea says
Hi James! Perhaps the cake was undercooked? Because it's not supposed to have any gooey texture. Try baking it a few minutes more until when you insert a skewer in the center, it comes out clean. Hope it helps and let me know how it goes.
AMY says
I jt made this cake. The combination of tastes from the almonds, lemon & orange is very unami. Every bite is a refreshing citrus aftertaste. Even without butter/oil, the cake crumb is moist. I split this recipe into 2x 5" tins to make mini cakes. The cake still rose well in the oven. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks for sharing. All the way from Penang, Malaysia.
Bea says
That's awesome, Amy! Yes, this is a keeper in my opinion also 😁. If you love this, then you'd might also love my orange olive oil cake. Let me know if you gave it a go. Thank you for your feedback Amy and have a wonderful day ahead!
yhk says
Amazing recipe, thank you! I made mini Bundt cakes and it was to die for. And I don’t really like cake much. Muchas gracias de Australia!
(Forgot to give you 5 stars in my first comment!)
Bea says
That's awesome! I'm happy to hear that. If you liked this, maybe you'd like my orange olive oil cake also. Do let me know if you give it a try. Thank you so much for your feedback! ❤️🙌
YHK says
Amazing recipe, thank you! I made mini Bundt cakes and it was to die for. And I don’t really like cake much. Muchas gracias de Australia!
Niamh says
I LOVE this cake!! I was looking for a recipe after first discovering this cake two years ago in work and this one was delish! Your explanation of the ratios with the eggs was very helpful in decreasing the recipe quantity (I was filling two mini cake tins). Highly recommend this recipe 🙂
Bea says
Hi Niamh! Happy to know that you find it useful and that you liked the cake. Thank you so much for your feedback! 😀
Dan says
I would like to know if you can freeze this cake. Looks amazing.
Bea says
Yes, you can. Hope it helps 🙂
CC says
If I were to make this recipe in a 9" springform pan, what adjustments would I have to make to the recipe?
Bea says
Multiply all ingredients for 1.4 for a 9 inch pan. Hope it helps!
Emily says
If making our own almond meal, what weight of whole almonds would you advise starting with? Should they be toasted first?
Bea says
Hi Emily! You can toast them first or not, your choice. I'd suggest you blend 1 cup first and go from there, to get more or less the feeling of how much more you'd need. Hope it helps!
Theresa says
Hi this looks amazing. I can't use sugar being a diabetic so I use Splenda. Would that work? and if so should I add baking powder since its the combo of sugar and eggs that gives the rise?
Bea says
Hi Theresa. I haven't tried it with Spenda so I can't say for sure. And yes, some baking powder is needed to help with the rise in this case, perhaps 1 1/2 - 2 tsp would do? Not sure how the texture would be though since beating sugar and eggs also makes it lighter. Let me know how it goes.
Shey says
Hi - can I make almond meal from whole unsalted almonds? Should they be blanched? I am having a hard time finding almond meal.
Thanks so much!
Bea says
Hi Shey! You can use either either. Unblanched will give the cake a slightly darker colour (due to the almond skin). And yes, use unsalted ones. Hope it helps.