Esterházy torte

1. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until frothy, then gradually add the granulated sugar and beat to stiff, glossy peaks; mix the ground almonds with the flour and fold gently into the meringue.

2. Draw a 24 cm circle on each of six sheets of baking paper, spread the meringue evenly over them and bake in batches in an oven preheated to 170 °C for 10-12 minutes until pale golden; peel off the paper while hot and let cool.

3. For the cream, bring half the milk to the boil with the scraped vanilla pod; stir the rest of the milk smooth with the egg yolks, sugar and starch, pour into the hot milk and cook, stirring constantly, into a thick custard; cover and let cool.

4. Beat the soft butter until fluffy and add the room-temperature custard a spoonful at a time until you have a smooth buttercream.

5. Spread the first layer with cream and stack the layers in this way; brush the top layer thinly with warmed apricot jam, coat the sides with cream and press flaked almonds onto them.

6. Warm the fondant with a splash of water over simmering water until body-warm and pourable, and quickly spread it over the top; quickly pipe parallel lines of melted chocolate over it, then drag a toothpick through them in alternating directions to create the classic web pattern; chill for at least 6 hours.

Tip: You can bake the layers a day ahead - stored airtight they stay crisp, and the finished torte slices most neatly after resting overnight.