Black-out Cake

CAKE
3/4 c Butter, softened
3 ts Baking soda
3 c Sugar
3 Eggs
1/2 ts Salt
3/4 c Buttermilk
1 1/3 c Boiling water
4 oz Unsweetned chocolate, melted
3 c Flour
3/4 c Roasted almonds, diced
2 ts Vanilla extract

1.Preheat oven to 350 F. grease 2 nine inch round cake pans. Dust with
flour, tap out excess. 2.In a large bowl, beat together butter and
sugar with electric mixer or medium speed until light and fluffy,1-2
minutes. add eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended. add
chocolate and beat 1-2 minutes. 3.Mix together flour, baking soda and
salt. Add to chocolate mixture in two additions alternately with
buttermilk. Beat until well blended. With mixer on low speed, add
boiling water and beat until smooth( batter will be thin) Pour batter
into prepared pans. 4.Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a cake tester
inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 minutes,
then unmold onto racks and let cool completely. 5.Make Chocolate
Ganache:In a 2 qart glass measure, combine chocolate chips and heavy
cream. Heat in a microwave oven on HIGH 3 minutes, or until melted
and smooth when stirred. Stir in butter and vanilla. 6.Cover and
refrigerate 1 hour, or until ganache holds its shape and is thick
enough to spread on cake. 7.Cover a cake layer with a little more
than 1/3 of chocolate ganache. Set second layer on top. Frost top and
sides of cake with remaining ganache. Press almonds into side of
cake. Refrigerate cake 3-4 hours, or until ganache is firm, before
serving.

Yields
1 Servings