is a flourless chocolate cake made with almonds. It usually contains butter, eggs, salt, and sugar, producing a dense, dark cake.
The origins of is unclear, and have become the subject of culinary legends, many featuring a forgetful or distracted baker inventing the cake by accident. Today, it is among the most famous dishes in Neapolitan cuisine. In the island of Capri and broader Campania region, both made at home and purchased from ('pastry shop') are popular.
Preparations of are simple but vary widely, sometimes including flavours such as bitter orange and the liqueur Strega. In Italy the cake is usually topped with designs made using powdered sugar, often taking the form of words, the , or an outline of a crocheted doily. A variation named uses white chocolate instead of dark and adds Capri lemon.
Origins
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Chocolate cakes appear infrequently in Italian cuisine despite Italian chocolates being acclaimed— is an exception. There is little historical record of its creation, creating origins so unclear the cake cannot confidently be said to have been invented in Italy. This has given rise to several legendary creation stories.
On Capri, there are two traditional accounts. In the first, two Austrian women who lived in the Strandpension house in the Capri neighborhood of Marina Piccola created the cake sometime between 1930 and 1950. The responsible chef was attempting to make a different cake and forgot to add flour, creating ('one of history's most fortunate mistakes'). The other account credits Capocchiella, a descendant of Spanish painter Esteban Blasco in 1950. In this account, Capocchiella was called in at dawn as a replacement sous-chef, where, tired, he mistook cocoa powder for flour while making an almond cake. After putting the cake in the oven and falling asleep, he woke to the smell of chocolate. The cake was a success, and when customers inquired about its name, Capocchiella sheepishly gave "".