The torta sette veli, or seven veils cake, is Palermo’s classic birthday cake: layers of hazelnut and chocolate bavarese, cocoa sponge, a crunchy base and thin chocolate veils, covered in a mirror glaze. Our version flavours the hazelnut bavarese with Scyavuru 100% Pure Hazelnut Paste.

It is a project cake: allow two days, because it needs 12 hours in the freezer and another 12 to thaw. Follow the order of the layers carefully and use a long, hot knife for clean slices. For something quicker with hazelnut and chocolate, try Bianco e Nero.

Difficulty: Very difficult
Course: Celebration cake
Time: Prep about 12 h over two days · Freeze 12 h · Thaw 12 h · Bake 25 min
Made with: Scyavuru 100% Pure Hazelnut Paste

Ingredients for torta sette veli

Cocoa sponge

  • 120 g flour 00
  • 30 g unsweetened cocoa
  • 140 g sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • ½ sachet baking powder

Crunchy base

  • 180 g dark chocolate
  • 40 g chopped hazelnuts

Chocolate veils

  • 100 g dark chocolate (60—69%)

Custard base

  • 120 g egg yolks
  • 90 g sugar
  • 20 g flour 00
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 12 g gelatine sheets
  • 300 ml milk

Bavarese

  • All of the custard base
  • 750 ml fresh liquid cream
  • 100 g Scyavuru 100% Pure Hazelnut Paste
  • 100 g dark chocolate
  • 30 g milk

Mirror glaze

  • 12 g gelatine sheets
  • 240 g sugar
  • 160 g fresh liquid cream
  • 75 g unsweetened cocoa
  • 170 g water

How to make torta sette veli

  1. 1. Glaze (the day before) Mix the cream with the cocoa. Heat the water and sugar until just below boiling, then add the soaked, squeezed gelatine and the cocoa cream. Blend, strain and chill for at least 12 hours.
  2. 2. Sponge Whisk the eggs and sugar, then add the cocoa, baking powder and flour. Bake in a 26 cm springform at 180 °C (static) for 25 minutes. Cool, then cut it into three discs; you’ll use the bottom and middle ones.
  3. 3. Crunchy base Melt the 180 g of chocolate, stir in the chopped hazelnuts, spread it in the lined tin and chill for at least 30 minutes.
  4. 4. Veils Melt the 100 g of chocolate, spread it thinly on baking paper and chill for 30 minutes.
    Spreading melted chocolate thinly on baking paper to make the chocolate veils
  5. 5. Custard Soak the gelatine. Whisk the yolks with the sugar and flour, add the milk, and cook in a bain-marie, stirring, to 80 °C. Take it off the heat, stir in the gelatine and let it cool.
  6. 6. Bavarese Fold the half-whipped cold cream into the cooled custard and divide it in two. Stir the Hazelnut Paste into one half. Stir the chocolate, melted with the milk and cooled to about 32 °C, into the other.
    Folding hazelnut paste into the bavarese cream in a bowl
  7. 7. Assemble (upside down) Working in the lined tin, build the cake upside down in this order: hazelnut bavarese, sponge, chocolate bavarese, veils, sponge, hazelnut bavarese, veils, chocolate bavarese, then the crunchy base (rough side down). Tap out the air and freeze for 12 hours.
  8. 8. Glaze Turn the frozen cake out onto a raised stand set over a tray, crunchy base down. Warm the glaze to 32—34 °C and pour it over. Decorate straight away.
    Pouring the chocolate mirror glaze over the frozen cake on a rack
  9. 9. Thaw Leave it in the fridge for 12 hours before serving.

Tips

  • For clean slices, use a long knife dipped in boiling water and wiped dry between cuts.
  • Once thawed, it keeps 3 days in the fridge. Don’t refreeze it after glazing, or the glaze loses its shine.
  • Leftover glaze freezes for up to 4 months.

Try it with…

Did you know?

  • In Palermo it is the classic cake for birthday parties.
  • It was created by Luigi Biasetto, Cristian Beduschi and Gianluca Mannori, the Italian team that won the Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie in Lyon in 1997.
  • Its creators registered “Setteveli” as a brand name.

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