Nut tortes/cakes?

[jedovaty]

Hi there: I have very limited experience baking not-bread, and have some questions about nut tortes.  My mom used to bake a very basic, yet tasty one: whip sugar and egg yolks, mix with ground hazelnuts, pinch of cinnamon, then fold in stiff egg whites.  I found a similar recipe online a while ago, the difference being there are more yolks than whites (mom used all the yolks and whites): http://www.italyrevisited.org/recipe/Cakes/3967  Mom's recipe also uses about double the nuts in that one.

Anyone make similar types of tortes/cake? 

 

I have two initial questions after trying a 1/4 batch of the linked recipe and baking in semi-sphere silicone mold.  However, I used 3 egg whites and 3 egg yolks - so this is like a hybrid of mom's recipe and the linked recipe.  It rose/collapsed in the oven.  The texture was different from what I remember, not as dense as mom's, and kind of foamy/spongy.

 

1. how could I either keep it from rising, or keep the rise from collapsing? 

I'm mostly interested in making it a little more dense, however, I'd be curious to try it lighter if possible (i.e. keep it from collapsing) just for laughs. 

Would increasing the ground nuts make it denser, while reducing the egg whites keep it stable?

 

2. What kind of chocolate coating do you all think would be good?

In mine, I tried to make a mirror glaze but it became a semi-gloss after ovenight rest.  The layer was super thin (great) but didn't really add anything other than a slightly strange skin.  I'm thinking a thin, crispy chocolate shell would be a nice segway.. how are those made?  Just pouring tempered chocolate over the baked cake?  Or, make the shell and put the cake into it?

 

Thank you for time and input.