Throwing a dinner party or BBQ and want a no-bake, easy dessert that’s super yummy to boot? Well, this is the recipe for you! You can start this up to two days before you want to serve it and have it all done (except for a sprinkle of chocolate and almonds) up to a day before. So that’s more time for the important things… like being able to sit down and enjoy  the cheese platter  your guests’ company.

This dessert is a simple combination of flavours… cream, almond and chocolate but don’t be fooled because it feels and looks decadent. The almond meal makes it quite a rich dessert, so a little, goes a long way. This will easily serve eight people but if you are having a bigger party you can easily double or triple it.

If you’ve scrolled down to the recipe you will no doubt have noticed that it contains almond essence. I think almond essence is a bit weird. To me, it tastes like artifical cherry flavour, not almond so with this one you have a choice. Don’t like almond essence? You don’t need to put it in. The dessert will still have a good flavour without it! Also you probably would have noticed that the dessert calls for ‘Nice’ biscuits…. I’m not using nice as a descriptor but rather it is the name of a type of plain biscuit we get here in Australia. So you can use any plain rectangle sweet biscuit you can find.

The first phase of the process is to make the centre of the torte. You will need to start by creaming the butter and sugar then add the egg yolks and beat well. Add the almond meal, almond essence and milk. Beat the egg whites until you reach soft peaks, then gently fold half into the almond mix. Fold in remaining egg whites. In a small bowl combine milk and rum and set aside.

Then you will get to assemble it. Start with a layer of the biscuits. In order to get the dessert out of only one packet of biscuits (there were only 22 biscuits in the packet) I only used 5 biscuits per layer, breaking one in half (for each layer) to make it an even two rows. Lay out the first layer of biscuits on a piece of baking paper and brush with the milk and rum mix. Spread a third of the almond mixture on top and then place another layer of biscuits. Brush with the milk and rum and repeat the process until you finish with a layer of biscuits. Again brush with the milk and rum. Wrap in aluminium foil and place in the fridge for at least 6 hours, but anywhere up to a 18 hours.

Once the torte has set in the fridge, it will be covered in cream. Simply whip the cream until soft peaks are reached, then unwrap the torte and carefully place on the serving plate. Cover all over with the whipped cream and place back in the fridge. Lightly covered with plastic wrap this will be fine to serve the following day. When you are ready to serve , sprinkle shaved chocolate and toasted almond flakes on top.