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Caprese cake with olive oil and chocolate

Attending a professional pastry-making course was one of the most interesting and useful experience I have ever had in my life. I got into a professional’s pastry lab thanks to Enrica, a friend of mine. I was, and I am, always very busy with my job, but that time I managed to find out some hours to get out of my studio and attend a wonderful course. 
Simone was a very skilled teacher, punctual, accurate, and patient. We made a lot of mouthwatering sweets; easy and difficult too (but this is challenging: the only way to learn new things)! Sometimes, I made good cakes, other times I made the same recipe over and over again, but the result was always the same: a disaster. 
This is an easy one. Read the recipe below.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Italian
Keyword almond caprese cake, caprese cake, caprese cake with chocolate and almond
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
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Ingredients

  • 4 arge or extra-large (275g) eggs 
  • 1¼ cups of granulated sugar (250g)
  • 1¾ cups of whole almonds (250g)
  • ½ cup of olive oil (100g)
  • 1¼  cups of dark chocolate
  • 3 tsp of dark cocoa powder (15g)
  • 1 tbsp 1 tablespoon (15g) of rum—the original recipe calls for rum, but you may replace it with Grand Marnier, Cointreau or Strega, a typical Italian liqueur
  • Powdered sugar to garnish
Servings 8 people

Instructions

  • Use an electric mixer, a KitchenAid, with the whisk attachment at high speed to mix the ingredients evenly; 
  • Beat the eggs and ½ of the sugar for 10-15 minutes until light in color and fluffy;
  • Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water or in a double boiler. If you want to save time, melt it in the microwave, but only in 20 seconds intervals to keep it from burning. Add the oil and stir well to combine. Set aside to cool;
  • Pulse the almonds with the remaining sugar until it forms a coarse, sand-like mixture;
  • Turn off the mixer and add the almond and sugar mixture, the cocoa powder, the melted chocolate, the oil, and the rum. Add these ingredients a little at a time and in this order;   
  • Butter a round 9-inch (24cm) baking pan and pour in the cake batter;
  • Pre-heat the static oven to 425°F (200°C) and bake for about 10 minutes. Then decrease it to 350°F (180°C) and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Hint: don’t use a convection oven as it dries the core of the cake out too much. Insert a toothpick into the middle. It should come out with a few moist crumbs in order to retain its moist consistency;
  • Take it out of the oven and allow to cool for about 30-40 minutes on a wire rack. The cooling time is very important because the cake must be completely cold before turning it upside down; otherwise, it could break. Turn it upside down and remove it from the baking pan. Dust it with powdered sugar.