This recipe is the summer variant, fresh and fragrant, of the famous “Caprese cake”, or the riot of chocolate and almonds that has become one of the classics of Italian cuisine, famous throughout the world. The dessert is based on almonds, lemon and white chocolate and is therefore perfect in spring and early summer for its fresh and delicate flavour. It is a simple and very successful recipe: try it and you will certainly be satisfied!
But before starting, I’ll tell you how the Caprese cake was born which, as often happens, is the result of chance (and a fateful mistake) which led to the discovery of new flavors and new consistencies. It is said that in 1920, in an artisan workshop on the Island of Capri, a chef named Carmine di Fiore was preparing an almond and chocolate cake for three American criminals who had come to Capri to buy a batch of Al Capone’s gaiters. Perhaps due to distraction, perhaps due to the rush to finish, perhaps for another reason, he made a mistake: he forgot to add the quantity of flour necessary to complete the cake dough. He baked it without realizing it and at the end of cooking, to his amazement, the cake turned out to be a real delicacy: soft in the center and crunchy on the outside, a great success, also celebrated by our American friends (albeit criminals).
But let’s get to our lemon caprese, here’s step by step how to do it:
Ingredients:
- 200 g of peeled almonds
- 200g of white chocolate
- 200g of granulated sugar
- 150 g of melted butter
- 5 whole eggs
- 50 g of potato starch or corn starch
- the grated zest of 3 lemons
- the juice of one lemon
- 25g of limoncello
- 1 sachet of baking powder (16 g)
Finely chop the white chocolate with the mixer and set it aside.
Still using the mixer, chop the almonds together with 100 g of granulated sugar until you obtain a flour.
Then mix with the chopped chocolate, the finely chopped lemon zest, the starch and the yeast.
Melt the butter and mix it with the mixture, then add the lemon juice and limoncello.
Separately, whip the whole eggs with the remaining sugar (100 g) with the whisk or a planetary mixer and whisk for a long time (15 minutes) until you obtain a light and very frothy mixture which has tripled in volume.
At this point, add the whipped eggs a little at a time to the almond mixture, mixing delicately with a wooden spoon from top to bottom, without dismantling the mixture too much.
Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured baking pan (preferably aluminum) and bake at 160°C for about 1 hour. If after the first 30 minutes the surface has darkened too much, continue cooking by covering the surface with aluminum foil.
Remove from the oven, let cool and turn onto a serving plate. Dust well with icing sugar and voilà! Here is your ready-made lemon caprese cake, perfect for a garden party or for Sunday breakfast.
Happy spring and happy lemon caprese!
