Spanish Almond Cake Recipe

Bring a touch of sunshine and flamenco spirit into your home with this delicious summer dish from Amber Locke

This recipe is loosely based on a popular Spanish cake called ‘Tarta de Santiago’; an almond cake named in honour of Santiago (St. James), the patron saint of Spain. The traditional way to decorate the cake is to dust it with icing sugar using a stencil with a cut out pattern of a cross or the shape of the sword of St James. However I topped mine with crunchy caramelised almond mixture made using ‘Miel de Palma’ (a rich palm syrup produced in the Canary Islands) but a light muscovado sugar works just as well. Serves 8.

Ingredients

For the cake:

250g unsalted butter

250g golden marzipan

150g self raising flour

150g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

6 large eggs

For the topping:

100g flaked almonds

50g unsalted butter

3tbsps ‘Miel de Palma’ syrup or 50g light muscovado sugar

3tbsp double cream

Method

Pre-heat the oven 170°C/gas mark 3 and grease and flour a 25cm spring-form cake tin. First make the topping by melting the 50g of butter in a saucepan over a gentle heat. Add in the palm syrup or muscovado sugar, bring to a simmer then stir in the flaked almonds and remove from the heat and set aside.

For the cake; dice the marzipan and butter and tip into the bowl of a food processor, add the caster sugar and blitz until well combined. Add the vanilla extract and then the eggs, one at a time processing after each addition. Finally add the flour and process until the batter is smooth. Pour into the prepared cake tin and cook for 40 minutes then carefully remove the cake from the oven and tip over the flaked almond topping. Smooth with a palette knife to cover the top of the cake. Return to the oven and cook for a further 15-20 minutes or until a cake test comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin then unmould and decorate with sifted icing sugar.