Hot Dish: Adventure in Spain inspires gluten-free Camino Cake

The Camino Cake uses almond flour with no butter or oil. AMY SOWDER PHOTOS

By AMY SOWDER 

Rosie Foster had hugged and waved goodbye to her youngest child when she ventured off to college. For the first time in more than 20 years, this single mother in Mount Kisco was an empty nester, no longer beholden to the school schedule.

So, in the fall of 2019, Foster set off with a group of adventurous women to hike northern Spain’s Camino de Santiago, or “the way of St. James,” in English. It’s a famous network of medieval pilgrimage routes leading to the shrine of the apostle, who was buried in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. People also hike the routes for sightseeing.

The life-changing journey led to Foster becoming the “Camino Cake Lady,” baking and making her signature gluten-friendly cake for local delivery, farmers markets and monthly dropoff at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan for her company, The Banjo Baker, named for her favorite instrument.

“Camino came at the time of a new chapter in my life. A lady told me ‘you’re in a liminal space, the space between transitions,’” Foster recalled. “When I came back to New York, I knew what I wanted to do in my life.”

A new chapter

That new chapter didn’t wait long to take shape. Foster, a medical writer who spent decades composing hospital communications, retired, signing off for the last time on New Year’s Eve, sending her final email to a client just before the ball dropped. 

She spelled out her retirement plan with five Bs: baking, biking, birding, books and banjo. The last one traces back to childhood road trips to Florida, where the “Dueling Banjos” song from the movie “Deliverance” would come on the radio. 

“It always sounded relaxing to me,” Foster said, despite having no musical background beyond a fourth-grade recorder. She taught herself banjo through an online course and was picking out songs within a couple of months.

“Camino Cake lady” Rosie Foster.

Baking entered the picture during the pandemic, when Foster, like much of the country, stress-baked. 

Then came the Camino, and the almond cake that changed everything. Back home, she began baking it for the coffee hour at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mount Kisco, sharing slices with friends and family who kept telling her it was good enough to sell.

The cake itself is deliberately simple. 

Just five ingredients

Foster’s recipe calls for just five ingredients built around almond flour, with no butter or oil, which keeps it naturally high in protein and appealing to gluten-free eaters even though it isn’t certified as such. A single-serving cake delivers 13 grams of protein; slice into an eight-cut full-size cake and each portion carries about 8 grams, while a 12-slice cut runs closer to 5.5 grams per slice. Foster found the base recipe online, then cut back the sugar and added real lemon zest to brighten the flavor. 

“It’s really light and it’s really good with tea,” she said. “Coffee too, but especially tea.” She’ll eat it plain or dressed up with berries and a dollop of fresh whipped cream, the way she might have first encountered it in a Santiago de Compostela bakery.

Practically speaking, the cake travels well, a trait Foster noticed while still on the trail. Vendors sold it shrink-wrapped and stacked high in shop windows across northern Spain, evidence of its sturdiness. Left on the counter, it keeps for five days; refrigerated in a zip-close bag, it lasts up to 10.

Pricing follows the small-batch bakery model: single-serving cakes run $5 each or $18 for a four-pack, while the full 9-inch cake sells for $20. Foster rounds out her offerings with gluten-friendly biscotti in flavors like gingerbread and vanilla, plus vegan cookies, including ginger molasses, sea salt chocolate chip and snickerdoodle, made in tribute to her vegan daughter.

Where to find it

Shoppers can find The Banjo Baker at the Mount Kisco Farmers Market on Sept. 20, followed by the Hudson Valley Open Market in New Paltz on Oct. 17 and the Carmel Farmers Market on Oct. 18. Local delivery within roughly 14 miles of Mount Kisco launched Sept. 1 for a $3 fee, offered on Tuesdays, and a monthly dropoff for prepaid orders began Sept. 16 at Grand Central Terminal. Orders go through caminocakes.com, and Foster has filed for a New York state trademark on the Camino Cakes name and logo.

For now, Foster is chasing something closer to identity than income: regular market dates, a familiar face behind a folding table, someone who orders tea and expects to see her there.

“My ideal situation is to get more consistent with a farmers market,” she said, “and I want people to say, ‘Oh, there’s the Camino Cake Lady.’”

It’s a fitting arc for a woman who once trudged past a scallop shell, the Camino’s trail marker, toward a cathedral built for a buried apostle, only to find her second act rising, gluten-friendly and lemon-scented, from a five-ingredient recipe she picked up along the way. Those curious about the pilgrimage itself can find “The Way,” starring Martin Sheen, streaming on Amazon Prime, a fitting companion piece to a slice of cake and a cup of tea.

TASTING NOTES

Restaurants asked to join Hudson Valley Restaurant Week

Organizers of the fall 2026 Hudson Valley Restaurant Week are calling for restaurant owners in northern Westchester and beyond to participate in the biannual dining festival returning Nov. 2 to 16. Local spots will feature special prix fixe deals. 

La Mer Oyster Bar coming nearby

The owners of La Mer Seafood market plan to launch a high-end oyster bar this fall. The market, located at 407 Main St., Armonk, is known for fresh seafood plus to-go meals. 

Apple-picking season launches

It’s September, so now the first varieties of apples are ripe for the picking. Among the farms transitioning into fall are Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard in North Salem, with Friday Cider Nights, and Wilkens Fruit & Fir Farm in Yorktown Heights with early apple-picking before the peak autumn festival crowds arrive later in September.

Tell us about your restaurant, farm or food product or service news at asowder@therecorder.org.