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A chocolate almond cake with ganache drip on a black and wood cake stand.

High Altitude Chocolate Almond Drip Cake

Heather Smoke
Three layers of moist chocolate sour cream cake, with almond pastry filling, almond buttercream and rich dark chocolate ganache drip.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 3 votes
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Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings16

Equipment

  • Stand Mixer with Whisk Attachment

Ingredients
 

Cake

  • 1 recipe Chocolate Cake

Filling

  • 6-8 oz Almond Cake and Pastry Filling (optional)

Buttercream

  • 2 cups (1 lb) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
  • ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ tsp almond extract
  • ⅓ cup raw almonds, very finely chopped

Ganache

  • 3 oz good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
  • 3 oz heavy whipping cream

Instructions
 

Cake

  • Prepare and bake 1 recipe Chocolate Cake in three 8-inch cake pans.
  • Cool the cakes completely before assembling and frosting.

Buttercream

  • In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
  • Separately, combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt. With the mixer on low, add the sugar mixture by spoonfuls, mixing until combined but clumpy.
  • Add the extracts, and increase the speed to medium (#4-6 on a Kitchen Aid). Whip for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl several times, until very light and fluffy. If the buttercream seems too thick for spreading, beat in a little milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 1 minute to get rid of air bubbles.
  • Fold in the chopped almonds

Assembly

  • Remove the cooled cakes from the pans, and place one cake on a cake board or cake pedestal.
  • Spread the cake with a thin layer of the almond pastry filling.
    Spread a layer of buttercream on top of the almond pastry filling.
  • Add the next layer of cake, and spread with almond pastry filling, followed by buttercream.
  • Add the third layer of cake. Frost all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. See this post for a tutorial on crumb coating a cake.
  • Frost the cake all over with a final coat of buttercream, smooth it out as much as you like, and chill the cake for 30 minutes.

Ganache

  • Chop the chocolate and scrape it into a bowl.
  • Warm the cream just until hot and beginning to simmer, then pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Stir until it comes together into a smooth, creamy ganache.
  • Pour the ganache on top of the cake, and use a small offset spatula to spread the ganache out, pushing it over the edges of the cake so it drips down the sides.
  • Let the cake sit at room temperature for about an hour for the ganache to set.
Keyword Cake, Chocolate, Chocolate Almond, High Altitude Cake
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