follow the torte caprese recipe by giuseppe dell'anno

Recipes

Torta Caprese

Caprese Cake

A light and flavoursome cake with a crispy, delicate skin and a moist centre

Ingredients

Introduction

Ingredients

For a 27cm (10¾in) tart tin with flaring sides

  • plain (all-purpose) flour or cornflour (cornstarch), for dusting
  • 200g (7oz/1½ cups) whole unblanched almonds
  • 150g (5½oz) dark chocolate chips (50–55% cocoa solids)
  • 40g (1½oz/scant ½ cup) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 180g (6¼oz/¾ cup) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
  • 180g (6¼oz/1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • ½ tsp natural almond extract
  • 2 tbsp dark rum
  • 250g (9oz) egg (about 5 medium eggs) at room temperature, separated
  • pinch of salt
  • icing (confectioners’) sugar for dusting

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Introduction

Torta Caprese owes its name to the beautiful and romantic island of Capri, just off the coast of Naples, from which it originates. The recipe is naturally gluten-free: in fact, the story goes that this cake is the result of a mistake made at the beginning of the 20th century by a local chef who, in a hurry, forgot to add flour to the batter of his cake. The result is a light and flavoursome cake with a crispy, delicate skin and a moist centre.

Some modern variations use ready-made ground almonds, but I find that blitzing whole unblanched almonds in a food processor together with the chocolate chips delivers a better, more rustic, texture while preserving the freshness and the flavour of the nuts. For a deeper flavour, you can also roast the almonds in the oven for 8–10 minutes at 180°C static (350°F/Gas mark 4). In this case, allow them to cool down completely before blitzing them.

Torta Caprese is traditionally baked in a deep tart tin with smooth, flaring sides, but it may be baked equally well in a standard springform tin. It is served up-side-down, smothered in a thick layer of icing sugar, often decorated with a stencil. This cake is delicious on its own, but it goes particularly well with a drizzle of pouring cream or smothered with a generous dollop of orange marmalade or raspberry jam. The best bakeries in Naples serve Torta Caprese as individual servings baked in hemispherical moulds, so why not give it a try?

Instructions

  1. Set the shelf in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 170°C static (340F/Gas mark 3). Grease the bottom and sides of a 27cm (10¾in) tin, 5cm (2in) deep, with butter and dust with flour. If you want to keep the recipe gluten-free, dust the tin with cornflour instead. I recommend also lining the bottom of the tin with a disc of baking paper as this will ensure a smoother cake top.
  2. Start by grinding almonds and chocolate chips together in a food processor at high speed for about 1 minute until the mixture looks gritty. It is fine to leave some coarser bits of almond in the mix: these will give the cake a pleasant bite.
  3. Sift the cocoa powder and the baking powder into the almond and chocolate mixture and combine well with a spoon. Set aside for later. On a warm day, the dry mixture might clump up, so make sure that all clumps are broken up before moving on to the next step.
  4. Soften the butter in the microwave until soft and creamy but not liquid; 10–20 seconds should be enough. Add the softened butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add half of the sugar (90g/3¼oz), the vanilla paste, almond extract and rum, and whisk the mixture until soft and creamy. Start at very low speed and gradually increase to full speed as the butter softens. Incorporate the egg yolks one at a time and keep beating at high speed until pale and fluffy. Set aside.
  5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with the salt using electric whisks until foamy. Gradually add the remaining 90g (3¼oz) sugar to the egg whites and keep beating to make a stiff meringue. Do not over-beat the whites or it will be more difficult to incorporate them into the batter: the meringue should form stiff, shiny peaks but not look dry and clumpy.
  6. Add one third of the dry mixture and one large spoonful of meringue to the yolk and butter cream and keep folding until well combined. Repeat twice more until all the dry mixture has been added. Incorporate the remaining meringue, gently folding it into the batter.
  7. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, gently flatten the top and place immediately in the oven. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Do not be tempted to over-bake this cake: the skin should by crispy, but the core should remain moist. Leave the cake to cool down in the tin on a wire rack for about 1 hour.
  8. Pass a blunt knife around the sides of the tin and turn the cake upside down over a cooling rack to cool completely. Transfer to a serving plate and dust with a generous amount of icing sugar. You can add a simple but effective finish by randomly placing a few fabric ribbons over the cake and use them as stencils before dusting it with sugar. Store under a cake dome for up to 3–4 days or freeze for up to a month.

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