Wow, what a great surprise when my lovely blogger friend Skd over at aromas and flavours from my kitchen nominated me for this award! I think that to receive recognition from anyone who has the same interests as you is an honor, but the bloggers that I follow or who follow me are especially kind. To Skd and to anyone who stops by my blog and takes notice, thank you so much. And for those of you who are not familiar with Skd’s blog, do please stop by! Her recipes and photos are lovely!
I am accompanying this award acceptance with a cake because it seems like the logical thing to do! Tume to celebrate!
THE RULES TO ACCEPT THE AWARD:
DISPLAY THE AWARD CERTIFICATE ON YOUR WEBSITE
ANNOUNCE YOUR WIN WITH A POST AND LINK TO WHOEVER PRESENTED YOUR AWARD
PRESENT 15 AWARDS TO DESERVING BLOGGERS
DROP THEM A COMMENT TO TIP THEM OFF AFTER YOU’VE LINKED THEM IN THE POST
POST 7 INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF.
Ok..for 7 things about myself!
1. I love yellow roses.
2. In reality, I know very little about cooking or baking. I just know how to read instructions well and enjoy learning new things.
3. I hate horror films. I am a bit of a wimp like Scooby Doo.
4. I love Christmas. I love the preparations and the decorating!
5. I have a weakness for Swarovski jewelry.
6. A few years ago, I visited Claude Monet’s house in France. I was able to visit his beautiful garden and lily pond. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.
7. I love Cookie Monster!
I saw this online and I thought it was so funny!
And now for the nominations. I have found 8 nominees! I will keep my eyes open for more! I know I am breaking the rules a bit but I was lucky enough to be nominated twice before for this award. I don’t want to nominate the same bloggers twice! 🙂
OldCountryGirl
Darie’s Daily Dish
Elizabeth
Sister Madly
Inte fan gör det det
Food is Life!
The Wifey’s Corner
Aromatic Essence
And now for the recipe!
July the 25th is an important day in Spain. It is the feast of its patron saint, Saint James. It is especially celebrated in the region of Galicia where they traditionally make an almond cake with a Saint James cross on it. I used to dislike these cakes because none that I had ever previously tried were homemade. Rather, they were store bought and they just tasted bad. Even my husband hated them..and for the same reason! About a year ago, in celebration of his saint’s day, a friend of ours named Santiago gave me his recipe for the cake. His recipe is from the cooking school he is going to. I made the cake yesterday and we had fir breakfast (tough life!) with a coffee. It tastes unbelievable and nothing like the bland store bought stuff! A rich flavour of almonds and hint of lemon! And it is EASY to do!
This requires pastry dough. This recipe is from Martha Stewart’s website and it is easy! Considering that it is so easy, you can opt for making your own. This recipe was the perfect anount for the pie dish size I used. It is 2 cm deep and 30 cm wide.
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 tablespoons ice water
DIRECTIONS
In a food processor, pulse flour and salt to combine. Add cold butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining. Sprinkle with ice water. Pulse until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed (if necessary, add up to 3 tablespoons more water, 1 tablespoon at a time). Do not overmix. Form dough into a 1-inch-thick disk, wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour (or up to 3 days).
Ingredients for the cake:
200 g sugar
4 eggs
200 g ground almonds
25 g unsoftened butter, diced
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Icing sugar
Preheat oven to 180°
1. Roll out the pastry dough to fit the size of your pie dish. Carefully place it into the pie dish and gently push it up towards the edges. It should be like this:
2. Place all the ingredients in a bowl except for the icing sugar. Crack in one egg and begin beating with an electric beater. Then gradually add one egg at a time and repeat the process of beating after each addition.
3. Pour into the pie mold and bake for 20 minutes. It will rise very high. Don’t panic. As it cools down, it will sink!
4. When it is completely cooled down, sprinkle generously with powdered sugar.
Enjoy! Xxxx Natascha
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Natascha's Palace 
I loved Monet’s garden too and the wall size lily pad art! Congrats on the award… and you are a great baker! Look at your perfect crust and beautiful powdered sugar art!
Thanks a million Sadie! You put a big smile on my face! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Beautiful tart! And beautiful photos of Claude Monet’s house and garden! I hope to visit France once day and am putting that on my ‘go-to’ list… 🙂
Thank you so much! It is definitely worth a visit. The garden is so peaceful and the house is so beautiful. Monet’s favourite recipes are in a book published a number of years ago with gorgeous seasonal photos of his garden. Heavenly!
I’ll have to check out this book! 🙂
It is called, “Monet’s Table. The cooking journals of Claude Monet. Pretty cheap on amazon!
Thanks Natascha! I’ll take a look for it 🙂
No problem. Xxx
Congrats on another award! That cookie monster picture made me burst out laughing, hilarious. The St. James cake looks lovely too.
I love the photo too! 😂😂😂😂 Thanks so much! 😊😊😊😊😊
Lovely tart! Claude Monet’s house is gorgeous 🙂 congratulations on the award and thanks for nominating me Natascha 🙂
My pleasure! Thank YOU! 😊😊😊😊