In the summertime, when the days are long and the sun is bright, I love having people over for lunch on my little terrace at home in East London. During the week, I’m often running around all day, every day, and while a weeknight dinner with friends is a perfect balm to life’s many distractions, there’s something about being able to take the time to make a beautiful meal for those you love that only the weekend offers. I feel like I have to make a dessert for anyone coming through my door, I think they’d be disappointed otherwise, and for a weekend lunch I can really indulge and take the opportunity to try out new recipes.
Of course, no recipe is a completely new recipe; they’re always built on those from my family, or from other chefs who have had an impact on me. Now, with so many years of writing behind me, new recipes are often built atop my own, there’s a joy in tweaking ingredients based on how I’m feeling or what’s available. This recipe below is a combination of the above, a variation on a creation that was inspired by one of my favourite cookbooks.
This cake is inspired by my favourite cake at The River Café. My friend Ruthie Rogers (the restaurant’s co-founder) always makes each guest feel like the most important person in the room. She understands hosting better than anyone and she understands a great chocolate cake very well too. I’d first read The River Café Cookbook in the 90s, with its candid photos that were so modern, and it left such a lasting impression on me that when I moved to London I begged Ruthie and her partner Rose for a job. As it turned out that job was answering phones, which I was really awful at, but just being there was enough.
I’d originally written this recipe to be made with hazelnuts, and you can use those instead, but after being in Sicily I had to make it with almonds. Try to get whole, skin on, unroasted nuts if you can: you can buy them already taken care of, but the flavour deteriorates so quickly once they’ve been toasted and they always just taste a bit stale.
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