Tarta San Marcos

Beneath a layer of caramelized egg cream lie white whipped cream and sponge soaked in syrup. Tarta San Marcos is a Spanish cake with a browned top and a white piped border. Some versions have their sides coated with almonds, adding the crunch of caramelized sugar and nuts to the soft layers. Its name is tied to San Marcos in León, but the history of the old building and the period when the present-day cake emerged need to be considered separately.

A name tied to a pilgrims’ hostel

San Marcos in León began as a hospital and lodging on the Way of Saint James. According to the institution’s history, a church, a monastery, and a hospital for pilgrims were built on the banks of the Bernesga River in 1152 by order of Princess Sancha, and were rebuilt in the 16th century. Today the building is used as a Parador.

There are two stories about the cake’s origin. One holds that members of the religious community offered it to Princess Sancha, who supported the founding of the institution. The other holds that it was made to welcome pilgrims traveling the route. Some local accounts say the cake was made by nuns, and the details of for whom it was baked and by whom do not agree.

Both are legends tied to the building, and no 12th-century recipe (ingredient proportions and method) for the present-day cake is known. There is a long gap before 1976, when a cake of the same name appears, as food writer Miriam García confirmed in newspaper records at the National Library. When the present-day cake, layered with dairy cream, came into being is unclear.

The former San Marcos monastery in León, which appears in the cake’s origin stories. The present building was rebuilt in the 16th century. 2009. Photo: JnCrlsMG / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Three sponge layers sandwiching two layers of cream

The sponge is made mainly from eggs, sugar, and flour. The eggs and sugar are whipped before the flour is folded in, and the sponge is baked without knocking out too much air. Cutting the cooled sponge into three discs of equal thickness is common to several recipes from pastry schools and cooking programs.

Before assembly, a syrup of water and sugar boiled together is soaked into the sponge with a brush or similar tool. Some methods use orange liqueur or rum for aroma. The moistened sponge blends with the dairy cream and becomes soft enough that a cut slice can be enjoyed with the two together.

The basic filling is cream whipped with sugar. In one method, two layers of white cream about 1 centimeter thick are sandwiched between the yellow sponge layers. Some versions replace one layer with a cocoa cream called trufa, making the lower layer cocoa and the upper layer white cream. The combination of fillings and the amount of cocoa also change the proportion of white and brown in the cut surface.

Even adding a vanilla aroma is not just a matter of mixing it in while whipping. In chef Eva Arguiñano’s method, the cream is warmed over low heat with the vanilla pod, cooled, and then whipped with sugar. Heat for infusing the aroma and cold for incorporating air are used in separate steps.

Only the top, spread with egg cream, is caramelized

The yema covering the top is a cream cooked mainly from eggs and sugar. Besides formulas using egg yolks, water, and cornstarch, there are formulas combining whole eggs and butter. Despite the name yema, it does not always use egg yolks alone.

The yema is spread over the chilled cake and sprinkled with sugar, and the surface is quickly caramelized with a hot iron or a torch. This finish is called yema tostada. By applying heat only to the top rather than baking the cream layers again for a long time, the cake achieves both a soft interior and a surface of caramelized sugar.

In the recipe published by the pastry school in Leioa, the caramelized surface is brushed with a glazing jelly, white cream is piped around the edge, and strawberry coulis is added to the plate. The finished cake also differs depending on whether the almonds on the sides are toasted or sugar-coated.

Shared features with the Massini, and a San Marcos finished by freezing

Catalonia’s Massini is also a cake that layers sponge, white whipped cream, chocolate cream, and a caramelized egg surface. The two share techniques, but which came first and spread to the other is not known.

San Marcos itself is also made outside León. At López Echeto, a pastry shop in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, trufa is added and the cake is finished by freezing. While keeping the combination of white whipped cream, cocoa cream, and caramelized egg cream, San Marcos cakes are made with chilling methods and fillings that vary by region and shop.

Glossary