A flat, moist almond cake with little or no flour, dusted with icing sugar around a stencil of the cross of Saint James.
What makes it tarta de santiago
Ground almonds, sugar and eggs — no flour, or hardly any.
Lemon zest, sometimes cinnamon.
Icing sugar over a cross-shaped stencil.
Where it comes from
Almond cakes were made in Galicia long before this one took the pilgrims' city's name. The cross of Saint James stencilled on top is a twentieth-century touch, usually credited to a pastry shop in Santiago.
It's eaten after a meal with a glass of sweet wine or a herb liqueur, and sold in every bakery on the pilgrims' way into the city.