Torta Savoia

01 / ABOUT THE DISH

About the dish

Torta Savoia is a layered chocolate cake that hails from Sicily. It consists of several sponge layers coated in a rich chocolate hazelnut cream. The entire combination is covered with a glossy chocolate glaze, and in some variations, sponges are lightly soaked with rum. It is said that the cake was created when Sicily was merged with the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The legend says that the Benedictine nuns from Catania thought of the recipe and included hazelnuts from Piedmont to honor the House of Savoy—hence the cake's name. This legend is still the most prominent, but some argue that the cake was a creation of a local pastry chef from Palermo who invented it when Victor Amadeus II, the Duke of Savoy, was crowned as the King of Sicily in 1713.