I know many of you have heard me talk about my "martha stewart" friend Alisha. She is an amazing baker. This is one of her recipes. I took it to a party a few weeks ago and we sat around, eating them and pretty much crying (out of joy for our mouths:).

They are: Divine Chocolate Cake with Almond Butter Frosting

Warning: they are NOT lowfat! However, it isn’t quite as bad as it looks b/c the recipe is really

1 ½ times a normal one (it makes a 9 inch cake AND 12 cupcakes or 36 cupcakes). Enjoy!

Cake
3 sticks butter
1 cup dutch process cocoa
2 ½ cups flour
2 ¼ tsp bak soda
¼ tsp salt
2 ¾ cup brown sugar
6 eggs, room temp
2 cups buttermilk
1 Tb vanilla
¾ cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350
In a large mixer, cream butter and sugar together till light. Add in eggs, 2 at a time, till blended. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingred: cocoa, flour, soda, salt. In another bowl, mix hot water, buttermilk, and vanilla.

Mixing on low, alternate dry ingred with wet, till just blended. Don’t over mix. Scrape into pans.

Cupcakes: bake 18 min, till set but moist.
9 inch round cake: butter, flour, bake 60 min.

Almond butter frosting:
2 sticks butter, room temp
2 tsp almond extract
1 TB milk
1 pound powd sugar.

Beat butter, add extract, mix in powd sug, add milk if needed. Frost generously.