A high altitude chocolate almond cake, with fluffy chocolate almond buttercream, covered in toasted almonds. This cake is moist, rich and nutty, and is so easy to decorate with sliced almonds.
You might also love this almond flour chocolate torte, chocolate hazelnut cake, and almond amaretto bars.
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Why You’ll Love This Cake
Uses Simple Pantry Ingredients. While there are a few different elements to this chocolate almond layer cake, the ingredients are simple. Most cooks and bakers will have everything on hand that you need for this cake.
Delicious Textures and Flavors. The soft and moist chocolate cake with the fluffy buttercream and nutty toasted almonds is just wonderful.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Cocoa Powder. Although I always bake with Dutch processed cocoa powder in my chocolate cake recipes, you can use either natural or Dutch processed for the buttercream. I used natural cocoa powder for today’s buttercream recipe, to let the flavor of the almond extract shine.
- Almonds. You’ll need almonds for the cake batter, which I recommend finely chopping with a food processor. Then to decorate the cake, sliced toasted almonds are simple but beautiful.
- Almond Extract. Almond extract in both the cake and the buttercream adds even more almond flavor to complement the chocolate.
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 8-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, chopped almonds, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, oil, vanilla and almond extracts. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk the batter until combined.
- Divide the batter between the cake pans. Bake the cakes for about 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a wire cooling rack and cool the cakes completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- While the cake is cooling, you can toast the almonds. Preheat the oven to 300 F, and spread the sliced almonds in an even layer over a baking sheet. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, stirring once or twice throughout so they toast evenly, until golden brown. Set aside to cool completely.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for one minute until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, combine the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, meringue powder and salt. With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar mixture by spoonfuls.
- Add the vanilla and almond extracts, then increase the speed to medium and whip the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy.
- Stack, fill and frost the cake layers with the buttercream.
- Take handfuls of the cooled, toasted almonds, and press them against the sides and over the top of the cake. Gather up what falls off and continue to press them into the frosting, until the cake is covered with almonds.
Recipe Variations
Almond Pastry Filling
A sweet almond filling between the layers of cake is so good in this recipe. Almond Cake and Pastry Filling can be hard to find in grocery stores, though.
Vanilla Almond Buttercream
Instead of the chocolate almond buttercream, this cake is wonderful with vanilla almond buttercream. See my burnt almond cake for the recipe.
Chocolate Ganache Drip
I originally published this cake recipe in 2021 as a chocolate almond drip cake with vanilla almond buttercream, covered with chocolate ganache drip on top. See my marble cake with chocolate drip for the recipe and instructions for a drip cake. If you add the drip, I would add it onto a plain frosted cake without the covering of toasted almonds.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
I always bake with Dutch processed cocoa powder in all of my chocolate cake recipes. For the buttercream, though, I used natural cocoa powder, which has a more mild flavor, and allows the flavor of the almond extract to come through more.
Store the leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
For a smaller cake, make half the recipe for the cake and the buttercream, and bake the cake in three 6-inch cake pans.
You Might Also Like
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High Altitude Chocolate Almond Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- 8-inch cake pans (x3)
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 1 cup almonds, very finely chopped
- 2 tbsp instant espresso powder or instant coffee, optional
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp almond extract
Buttercream
- 1 ¼ cups sliced almonds
- 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup natural or Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp meringue powder, optional
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 8-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, chopped almonds, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the eggs, milk, sour cream, oil, vanilla and almond extracts. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk the batter until combined.
- Divide the batter between the cake pans. Bake the cakes for about 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a wire cooling rack and cool the cakes completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- While the cake is cooling, you can toast the almonds. Preheat the oven to 300 F, and spread the sliced almonds in an even layer over a baking sheet. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, stirring once or twice throughout so they toast evenly, until golden brown. Set aside to cool completely.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for one minute until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, combine the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, meringue powder and salt. With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar mixture by spoonfuls.
- Add the vanilla and almond extracts, then increase the speed to medium and whip the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy.
- Stack, fill and frost the cake layers with the buttercream.
- Take handfuls of the cooled, toasted almonds, and press them against the sides and over the top of the cake. Gather up what falls off and continue to press them into the frosting, until the cake is covered with almonds.
I made this cake for my birthday last weekend, and it might just be the best cake I’ve ever had. Days later, we’re all still talking about how delicious it was, especially the almond frosting. It was easy to make following the instructions, just took some time between all the steps. I will be finding reasons to make this again, and I’m already thinking of other ways to use the almond frosting.
How long should I bake this cake if I use two 10-inch pans?