almond Archives - Jenny is baking

Tarta de Santiago – Gluten-Free Cake from Spain

The “tarta de Santiago” or “tarta de Compostela” stems from the Spanish city Santiago de Compostela in the north west in the provence Galicia. It is a gluten-free almond cake, which was already served by Don Pedro de Portocarrero in 1577 when professors were ordained in the university of Santiago de Compostela. This means this cake dates back centuries, originally it only contained almonds, sugar, and eggs. It was only later that additional ingredients were added. in 2006 the cake was geographically protected, it had to be made in the provence Galicia for it to deserve the name tarta de Santiago. Moreover, it needed to have a certain amount of almonds, sugar, and eggs and had to be dusted with icing sugar, leaving out the Jacob’s cross. Otherwise it is not a tarta de Santiago, see details here. When we had the chance to visit the city in summer 2025, we tried this cake right there and then, obviously. I immediately decided to make the cake while still on holiday. My brother-in-law (Spanish), declared this cake his new favorite. Today, Santiago’s name day, which is on July 25, I decided to publish the recipe for this delicious cake.

25/07/2025

Sandwich-Cookies: Alfajores with Almonds

Have you every heard of “alfajores”? These are sandwich cookies that are usually filled with the caramel cream called dulce de leche. They originally stem from Andalucia in Spain, but have become extremely popular in Uruguay and Argentina. Supposedly about 10 million (!) alfajores are sold each day in Argentina in 2023. The “original” is usually made with flour and cornstarch and creates this nice crunchy texture, however, my version below contains flour and almonds instead. The classic alfajor is usually rolled in coconut flakes, however, I will used chopped almonds for this version.

06/11/2024

Cute Snowmen Macarons

Awww, these are super cute, aren’t they? Cute little snowmen as macarons. I find it so fitting that it actually snowed during the night, what better time to publish this recipe than today? I published a bucket list on January 1 with 24 ideas of what you may wish to tackle in your baking, myself included. In my opinion French macarons should definitely be on your baking bucket list. I already have several recipes on my blog. However, what I hadn’t tried so far is to decorate macarons with royal icing. Maybe due to all the gingerbread houses I decorated with royal icing not long ago made me think. You can also decorate French macarons with them, so I decided to make some snowmen. I only decorated the macaron shells on the top with rocal icing. It actually was a lot of fun. I hope these sweeten a cold winter day for you!

19/01/2024

Simple Cherry Cake for a Picnic

This simple cherry cake has a little embarassing backstory. I once baked this cake many years ago when I was going to college. I remember, it was during one of these horrible times when there were like tons of exams and I was studying like there was no tomorrow. It felt like my brain was a hardware drive and had to be fully deleted and swiped clean just to be crammed again with data and facts for the next exam. It was during this time that my roommate asked for the recipe because she enjoyed it the first time around. She had planned to make it for her family visiting. And I simply didn’t remember anymore where I got it from, my brain, my hard drive had gone blank. However, I was too ashamed to admit to not knowing, so I simply did some research and gave her a recipe I found. Unfortunately, the recipe I had passed on to her was not nearly as good. But I kept quiet, I was too embarassed. Years later when I flipped through the very old cookbook my mom had given to me from the famous German brand Dr. Oetker, I realized that actually this was the recipe I had used back then. So, Susann, if you are reading this, it had nothing to do with your baking abilities, I simply had passed on the wrong recipe to you! Sorry for that.

08/07/2022

Moist Apple Almond Cake

I often take cake to work. My colleagues are some of my regular test eaters. And since I bring cake to work often, I usually can tell if a recipe stands out. That was definitely the case with this apple almond cake. Suddenly I found post-its saying “Thank you to our baking queen” or “Thanks for making my Thursday morning much sweeter.” My conclusion? This apple almond cake is a keeper, it is a keeper because no other cake has received as many post-it notes. It definitely needs to be posted on the blog. If you want apples in your coffee cake, this is the cake to choose. You have some apple in the cake dough, a lot of apple compote on the top with some nicely browned almonds plus one full apple as pretty decoration on the top. I mean, you got APPLE cake for sure with this one.

08/11/2019

German Nut Triangles

These German nut triangles are one of my favorite desserts from Germany. I just learned recently that you supposedly only serve them during Christmas season in some regions of Germany. However, I remember seeing them everywhere all year round, every bakery had them at least where we lived. Even the school kiosk offered them all the time and I happily ate them day in and day out.

04/10/2019