torta Archives - Very EATalian

Pinza Veneta - Holiday Cornmeal Cake from Veneto

Here in Italy the holiday season is officially closing with today’s Epiphany festivities and tomorrow people will start taking down their Christmas decorations (if it was up to me, I’d keep’em up all year long!). Today, my family and I will enjoy the pinza leftovers from last night’s Panevin and get together to play boardgames.

As I mentioned in my previous post, pinza is a rustic cake made with polenta flour (which is a bit coarser than cornmeal) and wheat flour and it’s filled with dried fruit such as raisins, figs, dates and flavored with grappa, fennel seeds and orange zest. My mom and my aunt always get together to make it and they take turns mixing the ingredients in the pot, as the dough is quite thick and dense (like polenta!). Since both of them have bad shoulders, I normally step in and help them with the mixing. This time I carefully observed how they make it and …

Torta Caprese - Gluten-free Chocolate Almond Cake | veryEATalian

A couple of days ago I tried to make my husband’s birthday special with a little family celebration via Skype. I had everybody wear party hats and I drew a colorful poster as a background for our performance of a loud-and-out-of-tune Happy Birthday. Since I was at it, I also made a nice cake for the occasion. He loved the singing and the poster part. I’m pretty sure he hated me for showing him a cake he couldn’t eat.

Who makes a birthday cake for somebody when they can only see it and not taste it?

How painful, I know…But I’m a firm believer there’s no birthday without a cake…so I HAD to make it.

The cake I made was Torta Caprese and it’s hands down one of my favorite chocolate cakes. As the name suggests, this cake comes from the gorgeous Island of Capri, near Naples. Unlike most cakes, Torta Caprese has no flour but lots of ground almonds which give it a nice texture throughout. Also, there’s no baking powder in it – it’s leavened only by whipped egg whites. I read somewhere this recipe was created by mistake: the lack of flour was a complete accident made by a sleepy pastry chef. What a fortunate oversight! It’s at once light, rich, and moist…plus, chocolate and almonds are just made for each other.

This cake is definitely a no-frills cake and it’s so simple and delicious it perfectly stands on its own. All this cake begs for is a nice dusting of powdered sugar on top of its crispy and thin crust – a nice finishing touch to make it beautiful and elegant. If you really want to do something extra, have an espresso with it!

Here are the photos of the cake I made to ~~torture~~ celebrate my hubby!

[TANTI AUGURI, amoreeee!]

Torta Caprese - Gluten-free Chocolate Almond Cake

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

50 mins

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

200 g (13 Tbsp + 1 tsp) butter, diced and softened
180 g (6.3 oz OR 1 scant cup) sugar (divided)
a pinch of salt
4 eggs
150 g (5.3 oz) dark chocolate
200 g (7 oz) almonds, toasted
powdered sugar

Instructions

Divide yolks from egg whites.
Cream softened butter with 140 g (2/3 cup) of sugar. Add salt and yolks, one at a time. Mix well to blend all the ingredients. Refrigerate the mixture.
Using a food processor, ground toasted almonds.
Preheat oven to 360 F (180 C).
Melt chocolate on a double boiler. Once melted, let it reach room temperature.
In a separate bowl, whip egg whites with the rest of the sugar to stiff peaks.
Add melted chocolate and ground almonds to butter mixture. Mix well. With a spatula, gently fold egg whites into mixture.
Pour batter into a greased 7-inch (18 cm) spring form pan and bake for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool off. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Notes

The cake should be moist inside.

Adapted from Sale&Pepe: http://www.salepepe.it/ricette/dolci-dessert/torte-crostate/torte/torta-caprese/