I have had full blown writer's block as of late. Nothing seems to want to come out of me. Sometimes I actually find that the hardest part about blogging, the writing part, the trying to sound interesting part.

In reality I am pretty boring and tend to follow the same routine from week to week. I am not complaining about it, I actually love routine. And as much as it may sound boring, my week to week activities, I love them and wouldn't change them for anything. Our weekends tend to be the same, Paul and I head out hiking, maybe have a fire/picnic on the coast, brunch at our favourite spots, and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen shooting and creating.

When all the stars align I will get together with a girlfriend or two. Lives are so busy now a days that it is rarer than I would like but we just make sure to cherish the time we have, drinking wine, canvasing Christmas craft fairs, brunching {yes it's a pattern, I do love my brunch}, movie watching and chatting for hours upon hours.

That is really it though, I still work full time so during the week I am pretty Grandma-ish when it comes to my evenings. I come home, workout, make dinner, cuddle the zoo we seem to be collecting aka our fur babies aka Rahu, Ketu & Solomon. Every once in a while I will have a restaurant or event shoot but I keep my evenings simple and replenishing.

I decided today that I want to start meditating more frequently again. I used to all the time, it was part of my routine and then you know how it goes, well I stopped. So I am making a pact to you right now that tonight my meditation practice is going to start again. I am going to add it into my bedtime routine. I always feel so much more grounded and spiritually alive when I meditate and practice it regularly. Isn't it the oddest thing that what makes us feel the best we give up the easiest when life gets busy. Well no more, self-care, self-love, self-realization is being brought back into my life, genuinely.

Alright enough of me yammering on much about nothing, lets talk cake. Torta caprese is a Italian classic. It is simple yet decadent and rich. A small slice will be satisfying. This cake is awesome because you can easily change the ingredients to make it smaller or larger. The main ingredients dark chocolate, almonds, butter and sugar all just have to be equal parts.

If you have a smaller springform pan just use 125 grams of each ingredient, 3 eggs and an 8 inch springform pan.

The cake is moist, has texture from the almonds and comes out almost fudge like. I like the almond texture so I don't blend them until completely meal like, I leave them just a tad more course (not much more) and you get a bit of crunch in each bite.

I always like to add coffee to my chocolate cakes, it enhances the chocolate and makes the overall flavour that much more smooth and pure vanilla, I simply just love vanilla. You could play around and add different extracts or liquors, maybe some almond or orange. Mint might be nice as well.

I feel like this could become a classic Christmas cake. You only need a small slice as it is rich, which makes it perfect for after a large dinner, gives you that sweet satisfaction without needing too much. It is simple to put together and actually gets better on day two and three so you can make it ahead of time. Which allows you to spend more time with your loved ones on Christmas day instead of entirely held up in the kitchen. Bonus it looks extremely elegant on the table, especially after the snow dusting aka icing sugar dusting.

flourless dark chocolate almond cake {torta caprese}

ingredients

250 grams blanched almonds

250 grams dark chocolate {70% cacao +}

250 grams butter

250 grams sugar (white or cane)

6 eggs

1 tbsp pure vanilla

1 tbsp strong brewed coffee

2-3 tbsp of organic icing sugar (for dusting)

directions

preheat the oven to 320 degrees. grease and line the bottom of an 11 inch springform pan with parchment.

in a double broiler melt the chocolate (break into smaller pieces for quicker melting). take the melted chocolate off the heat and add the butter stirring with a wooden spoon until melted.

add the almonds to a food processor and blend until almost meal like. mix the almond meal into the chocolate & butter mixture. then add in the sugar, vanilla and coffee mixing fully.

once the chocolate mixture has cooled add in the 6 egg yolks.

in a separate bowl whip the whites until light and fluffy and gently fold into the chocolate.

pour the batter into the springform, smooth the top and bake for approximately an hour and ten minutes or until the top is dry and toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, a few moist crumbs are fine just not moist batter, watch to not over bake as you don’t want it to dry out!

let the cake cool completely before taking out of the tin, dust with icing sugar and serve. you could also serve it with some whipped cream or ice cream on the side.

this cake keeps really well and gets even better on day two.

recipe slightly adapted from Food52