Torta Caprese

I made this for a lunch party this summer and a few of you asked for the recipe. I have slightly re-mastered this since the NINA Capri cookbook. This is the cake of Capri and can make the end of any dinner party. Perfect for this slightly colder weekend.

Ingredients:

GF
Serves 10
200g soft unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
200g dark chocolate (at least 70 per cent cocoa solids)
5 free-range medium eggs, separated
100g unrefined caster sugar
80g muscovado sugar
200g ground almonds
50g almond flakes, chopped
1 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp amaretto
unrefined icing sugar, for dusting

How to Make Torta Caprese

Preheat the oven to 170C, and butter a 27cm springform cake tin and line with baking parchment.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water.
Meanwhile, in a stand mixer or using an electric handheld mixer, whisk the egg whites at a fast speed to form stiff peaks – this will take about 5 mins. Mix the sugars together in a separate bowl. Keeping a fast speed with the mixer, add 1 tablespoon at a time until all the sugar is incorporated.

When the chocolate and butter are melted, remove the bowl and pan from the heat and use a spatula to mix in the egg yolks, 1 yolk at a time. Mix in the ground almonds, chopped almonds, almond extract and amaretto. Now gently fold the egg whites into the batter a third at a time. Be as light as possible in folding the last two thirds so as not to lose too much air. Don’t overwork!
Carefully pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for 30 mins, or until a skin has formed on the surface but it is still gooey in the middle. Remove and allow to cool completely on a rack before carefully taking the cake out of the tin. Slice and plate up with a generous dusting of icing sugar, Caprese-style.