Recipe for Tarta de Santiago

Tarta de Santiago  - Have a Slice of Heaven
This is the cake mambers of the Spanish club made for "The Way" event

http://www.squidoo.com/recipes_galicia_spain

Tarta de Santiago, also called "St. James Cake," is an almond cake named in honor of the apostle. It's very flavorful and, rather than being of the light and airy cake variety, it's dense, making it almost fail-proof for me to bake!

Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups ground almonds
3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
8 tbsp butter (at room temperature)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup water
Zest of 1 lemon
Powdered sugar

Preparation:

·         Blanch almonds, then grind them until fine in a grinder or a food processor. Set aside.

·         Heat oven to 350 F degrees. Grease a round 8" spring-form pan.
·         In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar together. Add butter, flour, baking powder, and water and continue beating. (If you have an electric hand mixer, so much the better.)
·         Add almonds and lemon zest into batter and stir until thoroughly mixed.
·         Pour batter into cake pan.
·         Bake on the middle shelf for about 45-50 minutes. (Cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.)
·         Allow to cool.
·         Decorate with powdered sugar.

Decoration:
The traditional way to decorate the Tarta de Santiago is to sprinkle powdered sugar around a cut-out of a cross. To make one, fold a clean piece of paper in half, draw a half-cross vertically along the folded edge, and cut out. When the cake is cool, place the cross in the center and sprinkle powdered sugar around it.