I absolutely pigged out on this stuff in Galicia. They were always the same, flat, definitely a tart( tarta) not a cake( pastel) although the terms seem to be used interchangeably. It’s a very simple peasant recipe. I searched high and low for a recipe when I got back to Autralia but couldn’t find one anything authentic. Finally my daughter turned up one on a UK site called the Vintage Mixer or something like that. It came with rave reviews, the best ever, you’ll know the king of stuff, so I tried it, strictly following the recipe. It was very complicated and labour intensive, separating egg whites and yolks, beating and folding the whites etc. It turned out a thorough and bitter disappointment, nothing at all like the real thing. It was a nice enough egg and zest cake if you like these ingredients completely overpowering the taste of everything else. I should have learnt my lesson from the “best” claims. My experience is generally that this really means the worst. Anyway I worked and worked on this and came up with something I think is heaps better and much simpler. Still looking for that elusive taste but I’m getting closer:
10 oz almonds grind up yourself leave skins on for more flavour
7oz caster sugar
5 or 6 eggs
Zest from small lemon and orange but only a tiny bit, say a teaspoon of each otherwise it will overpower the lot
Teaspoon or maybe two of almond essence
Teaspoon of cinnamon powder
Now the easy bit. Just chuck it all in together, mix it up, whack it in a round baking tin based with baking paper and greased( butter and a bit of flour to prevent sticking) whack it in a fan forced oven at 180 C for half an hour an let cool down in the oven.
De Colores
John ( PS This has been added to my cooking for seduction recipe book although nothing there has ever worked for me. The other book is cooking for survival)