Serves 8-10

Pasticcerie all over Capri serve slices of this torta, and you’ll see everyone walking around eating this delicious cake wrapped in a napkin.

Ingredients

• 225g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 350g blanched whole almonds
• 350g best-quality dark chocolate (at least 85 per cent cocoa solids), broken into pieces
• 250g caster sugar
• 5 eggs, separated

Method

1. Heat the oven to 130C fan/gas 2. Butter a 20cm round, deep, springform cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.
2. Finely grind half of the almonds in a food processor. Tip into a bowl, then coarsely grind the rest of the almonds with the chocolate.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until pale and light. Add the egg yolks, one by one, beating well between each addition, then beat in the ground nuts (both finely and coarsely ground) and chocolate.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold about a quarter of the whites into the stiff chocolate mixture to loosen it a little, then fold this into the remaining egg whites.
5. Turn into the prepared tin. Bake for 45 minutes or until set – test by inserting a skewer into the centre of the torta: if it is cooked the skewer will come out clean. Cool in the tin.