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ALMOND CAKE IN MARSALA WINE SYRUP

Torta de Almendra is a Sephardic cake, passed on from generation to generations. It is also known as Torta de Santiago (in Galician) or Tarta de Santiago (in Spanish), literally meaning cake of St. James, is an almond cake from Galicia with origin in the Middle Ages. In May 2010, the EU gave Tarta de Santiago PGI status within Europe. To qualify, the cake must be made in the Autonomous Community of Galicia and contain at least 33% almonds.

The original Torta hasn't got The Marsala syrup, it is sprinkled with icing sugar as a decoration and is delicious on its own. The Marsala syrup is made from the Orange alla Marsala recipe, and enhance the contrast of sweetness and bitterness to the almond cake.

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ALMOND CAKE IN MARSALA

6 eggs

250 g (9 oz) castor sugar

grated zest of 1 orange

grated zest of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons cinnamon

250 g (9 oz) finely ground almonds

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For the Marsala Syrup

8 oranges

225 g (8 oz) sugar

2 cup orange juice (squizzed from the oranges)

¼ cup Marsala Wine

2tbs lemon juice

 

The Almond Cake:

Pre heat oven to 180°C (350°F)

  • Separate all the eggs. Whisk the egg yolks along with the sugar, orange and lemon zest and cinnamon in a large bowl. Mix the almonds into the batter.

  • Beat the egg whites separately until stiff and fold them slowly and thoroughly into the batter.

  • Grease pan with butter and sprinkling of flour or with spray and cook.

  • Pour the mixture into cake pan and place in the preheated oven. Bake for about 40 min. 

  • When the cake is done, remove from the oven and allow to cool.

The Marsala Syrup

  • While cake is in the oven, prepare the Oranges and Marsala Syrup

  • In a heavy pan, combine sugar with Marsala, lemon juice and ¼ cup water. Bring to the boil over a low heat, stirring occasionally.

  • Meanwhile, pare zest (the colored part of the peel) from oranges thinly, using a potato peeler, and cut into thin strips.

  • Remove remaining peel from oranges, making sure that you take off every scrap of the bitter white pith.

  • Stir strips of zest into syrup and simmer until syrup is reduced by about one third, stirring occasionally.  Remove pan from heat and allow syrup to cool.

  • When the cake is cool and out of the baking pan, place it in a deep serving dish not much bigger than the cake. Ideally, the deep dish should just contain the cake and syrup.

  • Poke many holes in the top with a toothpick or fork. Pour the syrup on the cake.

  • Decorate top of the cake with the orange peel.

The cake will absorb the syrup over the next few hours. Leave to soak overnight.

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