High Altitude Chocolate Almond Cake
Moist, rich and nutty chocolate almond cake, with fluffy chocolate almond buttercream, covered in toasted almonds.
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.
Notes
Store the leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
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