Homemade Torta Caprese

Jan 23, 2018

The best comfort food when you feel homesick or you just crave for some authentic Italian taste.

It is said that the best ideas are born from mistakes and this is particularly true in the kitchen. Sometimes errors can lead to new amazing, tasty creations, such as the Caprese Cake invented by Carmine Di Fiore, around 1920. The Italian pastry chef forgot to add flour to the mixture, but once the cake was baked, its wonderful moist and soft consistency as well as its natural absence of gluten, it conquered practically all.

Torta Caprese

The rest is history! Since that fateful mistake, the Caprese Cake has become one of the icons of traditional Campanian pastry. From the Island of Capri – where it was born – up to the Amalfi Coast, the Caprese Cake is the most popular cake in the area… and now you can enjoy it even in Dubai.

Here is our secret recipe. Try it in your home and don’t worry about making mistakes, you could always create the next “cake sensation” and… if it comes out so bad, just stop by Lounge Cafè Italiano and enjoy our Chef Luca’s homemade one.

Ingredients for 8 to 10 portions:

  • 50% Dark Chocolate – 300 g Peeled almonds (to be reduced to grains-size-powder) 300 g
  • Whole peeled hazelnuts (to be reduced to powder) 85 g
  • Custard sugar 250 g
  • Softened butter 250 g
  • Eggs (60 g each) 5 pcs
  • Salt 1 pinch
  • Potato starch

 

Process

Start by separating egg yolks from egg whites. Once done, keep the egg whites inside the chiller.

Move to the mixer and pour in a bowl the 250 g of room temperature butter (just leave it out of the fridge for 2 hours before starting your cake) and the 250 g of custard sugar. Mix everything with the whisk at medium-high speed and after 6-7 minutes add the egg yolks.

After a few minutes, the mixture will be very foamy. Turn off the whisk, add the melted chocolate (not warm), the blended almonds and mix everything.

In a clean bowl pour the cold egg whites and the pinch of salt. Before mixing, make sure the whisk is clean and dry, otherwise the whites will not stick.

After a few minutes the mixture will be shiny and fluffy, mount it until stiff.

Now that all the preparations are completed, preheat the oven to 170° in ventilated mode and start assembling: add to the first mixture the whipped egg whites and mix with a spatula, stirring gently from the bottom upward until the dough is uniform.

Pour the smooth and creamy mixture into a 22 cm cake tin – or 8/10 one-portion cups – already greased and floured with potato starch. Carefully level the surface and cook in a ventilated oven at 170° for about 45 minutes.

Once cooked, let cool the cake in the mould, then move it onto a plate – lined with parchment paper. When it’s completely cool, remove the paper and sprinkle the surface with icing sugar.

Your Caprese Cake is ready to be tasted!