Torta Alla Gianduia

Or, less fancily, Nutella Cake. This is a fabulously easy cake, another that I draw into service for birthdays: the hazelnuts on top somehow give it a burnished, ceremonial look.

Please don’t feel obliged to rush out and buy a bottle of Frangelico, the most divinely declassé hazelnut liqueur, its monkish derivation signalled by the rope that is hung from the holy-brother-shaped bottle.

I use hazelnuts bought ready-ground, but ones you grind yourself in the processor will pro