Tarta de Santiago (“Camino Cake”)

April 10, 2020

Food is so much at the heart of how I like to do Church: hosting Evening Prayer dinner parties, soup-lunches, mission meals for the poor, or tea-and-talk discussion circles. I like to imagine my dining room as an extension of the Church. Food is the universal language: when we eat together with other people, we experience a great sense of unity. Communal bonds are born over passing bread and butter. Food (dare I say, good food) is an essential Church ministry tool!

I was ordained into the Anglican Church of Canada in September 2019, and am serving a number of rural congregations across the Eastern Townships of Quebec. It is the weirdest time to be the Church. Unable to gather for worship for three weeks now because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are experimenting with all sorts of social media and digital communications to maintain community connections. We now gather online, read the Scriptures together online, pray online, even sing online. We are trying (somewhat desperately) to think up creative ways of capturing the joy and fun and hope and life of Easter, and to present it on a computer screen. The technology is a blessing, but no substitute for real face-to-face interactions. I find myself longing for lively gatherings and laughter around my dining room table.

A parishioner of mine often makes this cake to share on Sunday mornings—although I first encountered it while walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route in Spain. It is a traditional dessert in that part of the country, with origins as far back as the Middle Ages. The top of the cake bears the cross of St. James, one of Jesus’s twelve apostles and the patron saint of Spain, whose remains are venerated at the Cathedral in Compostela. Over 300,000 pilgrims walk the “Way of St. James” every year, each one returning home with their own lingering memories of tastes and smells.

“Ultreia!” is a common shout of encouragement heard amongst pilgrims on the Camino, literally meaning “Keep going!” In the midst of a soul-crushing breakup and my often all-too-usual existential anxieties about the future, I was not in the best of places in my life before walking the Camino. Yet, there was real soul healing in the Camino—in the genuine love of the pilgrim community, in the breath-taking beauty of rural Spain, the prayerful meditation of walking, and especially in pilgrim meals (Galician food is amazing, but all the more so after walking 20+km/day with a backpack on)!

Life is like the Camino, we never know exactly where the path leads, but we walk on step-by-single-step. Things are scary and uncertain in the world right now, it’s hard to watch the news, I can’t really even understand or imagine what is going on globally—but strong tea and cake is always healing balm for the soul. Walk on pilgrim! Ultreia!

1 3/4 cups almond flour (or finely ground blanched almonds)
6 large eggs, separated
1 1/4 cups sugar
Grated zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
2 tablespoons amaretto liquor (I have used rum, but it really changes the flavour)
Icing sugar for dusting

Preparation:

Beat the egg yolks with sugar until a smooth pale cream. Beat in the citrus zest and amaretto liquor. Add the almond flour and mix well.

With clean beaters, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold them gently into the egg and almond mixture.

Grease an 11” cake pan with butter and dust it with flour (you can also line the pan with parchment paper). Pour in the cake batter and bake at 350F for 40 minutes, or until the cake feels firm to the touch. Let cool before turning out.

For tradition: cut a St. James cross template out of paper and lay it on top of the completely cooled cake. Dust with icing sugar and remove the template, revealing the cross outline underneath.

*In other parts of Spain, this cake is glazed with apricot jam or marmalade.

This is one of my all-time favourite cakes, so much so that I requested it for my birthday dinner this year—although with chopped chunks of candied ginger folded in. Yum!

The Reverend Tyson Røsberg is part of a regional ministry team, serving rural Anglican parishes across the Eastern Townships. He completed an MA in history at Concordia University before switching to theological studies at McGill. He has a passion for growing vegetables and all things rural and rustic.