Bargains.......

Whilst walking around my local supermarket today my jaunt along the baking aisle ended with me buying a load of bits and bobs they were selling off. So back home, along with some vanilla cupcakes I was baking for a friend I decided to make some carrot cakes, sticky toffee puddings, triple chocolate muffins and some rum and coconut cakes.

Along with them I decided to make a "torta caprese"Capri nutty chocolate cake and some "quaresimali", Neapolitan lenten biscuits. I bought a load of almonds this morning and they are the main ingredient in both. I also had a few things to use up from my larder.

The saying is that this cake was made for three of Al Capone’s American associates, who were visiting Capri on his behalf for "some business". The chef was making an almond cake and forgot to put the flour into the cake mix. The result was so delicious that the Americans demanded the recipe and the chef having to come up with a name, named it "Caprese". The cake became famous and still is to this day, especially around the Sorrento peninsular.
This cake is very moist in the centre and has a harder crust on the outside. Traditionally dark chocolate is used however I like to mix both dark and milk chocolate.
You will see these cakes throughout Campania and they are often stencilled with the word Caprese or Capri.
Torta Caprese does not contain any flour. The eggs and almonds form the body and structure, so it is crucial that the egg whites are stiff and folded in with care, to keep the cake light and fluffy.
You can also make this cake as my aunties do substituting the almonds with hazelnuts.

Makes a 20cm cake
250g butter
250g chocolate
300g almonds
5 eggs
200g sugar
icing sugar to decorate

Mix the butter and half of the sugar together. Add the egg yolks and mix. Add the ground almonds and melted chocolate and mix well.
Whisk the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff and glossy.
Fold in a third of the whites into the chocolate and almond mix, then fold in the other thirds, taking care not to knock out too much air.
Pour into a 20 cm prepared cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C/350°F/gas 4, for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin to cool thoroughly.
Dust with icing sugar and serve.

These Lenten biscuits are so called because they are made without fat, no butter or lard. However the large content of almonds and nuts makes up for this. The dough for these biscuits like many other Neapolitan biscuits uses "pisto", which is a mix of cinnamon, cloves, white pepper and nutmeg. You can buy this already mixed in Naples but they don’t sell it here in England as far as I know.
These biscuits are made throughout Italy, some use a variety of nuts, mine are filled with almonds. Traditionally eaten at Lent these are now eaten at Easter and most other times of the year.

Makes approx 16

150g ground almonds
50g whole almonds
200g sugar
50g plain flour
2 eggs
40g mixed peel
For the pisto mix
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teapoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon white
pepper
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5. In a bowl mix together the flour, almonds, sugar, pisto mix, eggs and candied peel. Bring the mix together to form a soft dough. Form into a small log and then transfer it to a baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes then remove from the oven and leave to cool. Cut the loaf into 1cm thick slices then layer them on the tray and re-bake for 20 minutes. Cool and serve.