This authentic Italian treat is one of the most amazing chocolate cakes. The name Torta Caprese origins from the Italian island Capri where it’s said that a chef forgot to add flour into the cake batter. He served the cake anyway and customers liked it so much that the Torta Caprese was born. The cake has a thin hard shell covering a moist interior. The finely ground almonds (almond flour) give it a nice flavor and bite.

It’s a simple but delicious cake containing only a handful of ingredients. The better the quality of the single ingredients – especially the chocolate – the better the Torta Caprese will turn out in the end. I am a huge fan of simple, comforting food but these are often the tricky ones. People tend to understimate them, thinking they are darn easy to prepare, misled by the small number of ingredients. I learned my lessons, knowing that sometimes it’s a real challenge to prepare the simplest dish with an perfect outcome. This cake is none of that kind. It’s easy and it’s tasty. Always. If the name wouldn’t point so obviously to Italy, I would pass this dish off as a classic Li’l Vienna dessert.

Although I usually prepare the butter-chocolate-mixture over a bain-marie, you can do it without, just make sure not to heat the butter too much. Melt it over low heat, turn off the heat when the butter has melted, put the chocolate chips in and stir until the chocolate has fully dissolved. Set aside and let cool until needed. Since the rest of the recipe is pretty self-explaining, I stop now so you can start making this cake. One thing though: Don’t bake it too long – the cake should be moist in the inside.

Yield: 10 inch (26 cm) Springform; 8 big or 12 average size pieces

Ingredients

• 1 ¾ sticks (200 g) unsalted butter
• 7 oz (200 g) chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips
• ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (160 g) granulated sugar
• 9 oz (255 g) almond flour
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1 pinch of salt
• Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Line the bottom of the baking pan with a round of parchment paper. Butter the sides.
2. Melt butter together with the chocolate gently over a bain-marie, then stir together until smooth.
3. If using a heavy based saucepan heat butter until melted, turn off heat, add chocolate and stir until fully melted. Set aside and let cool until needed.
4. Preheat oven to 375 °F.
5. In a clean bowl with a clean electric mixer whisk the egg whites with 1 tablespoon sugar until stiff.
6. With the mixer (no need to clean the beaters from the egg whites) whisk egg yolks and remaining sugar until lemon color. Whisk in the salt, cooled chocolate mixture and almond flour until well combined.
7. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture until most of the egg white disappears.
8. Bake in the center rack of the oven at 375 °F for about 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs. If there is still batter on the toothpick, bake for some more minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and rest on a rack for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the outside of the cake to make sure it isn’t sticking anywhere, then remove the sides of the springform pan.
10. Invert onto a plate and remove the bottom of the pan (then turn again if you prefer the other side of the cake). Let cool for 10 more minutes before dusting the cake with confectioner's sugar.
11. Enjoy warm or cold.

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