This is a four layer round cake. This isn't a difficult cake and once you are done your family and friends will be talking about it for months.

Cake
3/4	cup	Flour
1/4	cup	Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4	tsp	Salt
6		Eggs, room temperature
1	tsp	Vanilla Extract
1/2	tsp	Almond Extract
1	cup	Superfine Sugar
6	tbsp	Butter (3/4 stick) melted, cooled and clarified
1/2	cup	Finely Chopped Blanched Almonds, toasted
		Rum Buttercream Frosting
		Almond Chocolate Mousse (do not make mousse until you complete step 5)
4		Vanilla Wafers, ground to fine crumbs in food processor
30		Chocolate-dipped Almonds

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; prepare two nine inch cake pans by greasing them, lining the bottom with a waxed paper circle, greasing the waxed paper and then dusting bottom and sides with flour. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt; set aside.
• Eggs achieve greater volume if they are warm when you beat them, so combine the eggs, vanilla and almond extract in a large deep bowl placed in a shallow bowl of hot tap water. Beat with an electric mixer until light and thick and quadrupled in volume. Add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating continuously. Keep beating until the mixture is thick and airy, like soft whipped cream, and a thick rope of batter falls and sits on top of the mixture for a few seconds when you lift the beaters.
• Use a fine strainer to sift about a quarter of the dry ingredients over the egg mixture; gently fold it in. Repeat with the remaining dry ingredients.
• Remove one cup of the batter to a separate bowl and whisk it with the clarified butter. Stir in the chopped almonds. Return this mixture to the main bowl of batter, 1/4 cup at a time, folding it in gently but thoroughly. Divide the batter equally between the prepared pans.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes, checking after 25 minutes; when the cake is done, the center will spring back if pressed lightly, and the cake will be pulling away from the sides of the pan. Let the layers cool in the pans on wire racks for ten minutes and then run a knife around each layer. Turn out, peel off the waxed paper and turn right side up on the racks to finish cooling. When cool, wrap individually in plastic and freeze for an hour, or until firm.
• Meanwhile, make the Almond Chocolate Mousse according to the recipe that follows. ( The Rum Butter cream Frosting, listed with the ingredients, should all ready be prepared.)
• Split each cake layer in half horizontally to make a total of four thin layers. Put one layer cut side up on a cake plate and tuck strips of waxed paper under the layer to keep the cake plate neat while you assemble and decorate the cake. Spread the layer first with about 3/4 cup of Rum Buttercream Frosting and then with about 3/4 cup of Chocolate mousse. Repeat with the remaining layers (cut sides down), making a stack that ends with Rum Buttercream Frosting. Use the remaining 1 1/4 cups of Almond Chcolate Mousse to cover the top and sides of the cake.
• Sift the vanilla wafer crumbs over the top of the cake and then blow crumbs from your palm onto the sides of the cake. Use a generous amount, since the first layer of curmbs will darken as the crumbs absorb moisture from the cake. Press Chocolate-dipped Almonds around the top edge to complete the decorations. Serve immediately or freeze until one hour before serving.
• Tip: To freeze, put the cake in the freezer UNCOVERED for one hour, or until very firm, then cover with plastic wrap; return it to the freezer until one hour before serving.

Rum Buttercream Frosting
1/2	cup	Light Rum
3/4	cup	Sugar
1 1/2	tsp	Light Corn Syrup
6		Egg Yolks
1	tsp	Vanilla Extract
1 1/2	cup	Butter, room temperature (three sticks)

• Heat the rum, sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan over low heat, stirring gently until the sugar dissolves. Wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in ice water. Clip candy thermometer to the side of the saucpan, raise the heat to medium and boil without stirring until the syrup registers 240 degrees F. (soft ball stage). Remove the syrup from the heat and let it cool slightly while you complete the next step.
• In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and vanilla until the mixture is pale and thick and falls in a ribbon when you lift the beaters.
• Add the hot syrup to the yolks by pouring it down the side of the bowl a little at a time, beating it in after each addition. (Pouring down the side of the bowl keeps the syrup from falling directly on the beaters and forming spun-sugar threads.) Let the yolk mixture cool.
• Add the butter one tablespon at a time, beating well after each addition. The frosting should be thick and perfectly smooth. Use this buttercream as soon as possible, or refrigerate it up to three days if necessary. When you take it out of the refrigerator, let it come to room temperature and then beat until smooth and spreadable again.

Almond Chocolate Mousse
1 3/4	cups	Heavy Cream
7	tsp	Sugar
8	squares	Semisweet chocolate, chopped (8 ozs.)
3/4	tsp	Almond Extract

• Scald 1/2 cup of the heavy cream with the sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour the hot sweetened cream over the chopped chocolate in a large bowl and stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool completely.
• When the chocolate mixture is cool, whip the remaining 1 1/4 cups of heavy cream with the almond extract just until stiff; do not overbeat. Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. Use as soon as possible. Makes about 3 1/2 cups.

Chocolate-dipped Almonds
1	square	semiisweet chocolate, chopped (1 oz.)
1/4	cup	Vegetable Oil
35		Blanched, Toasted Whole Almonds

• Put the chocolate and vegetable oil in a small heatproof bowl in a larger bowl or saucepan holding an inch of very hot water; stir the chocolate until melted and smooth. Remove the bowl of melted chocolate and set it on a cup of glass, tilting it so the chocolate makes a little pool.
• Using tweezers, hold each almond on one long side and sip the opposite side into the chocolate so the almond is half dark, half light. Place on waxed paper on a cookie sheet and let the chocolate harden for several hours. Carefully lift the almonds from the waxed paper and refrigerate until needed.
• NOTE: Choose the 30 prettiest almonds for decorating the cake.
• TO BLANCH ALMONDS: Put them in a pot of boiling water for a minute or two, then draining and rinsing well in cold water. Pinch off the brown skins.
• HOW TO TOAST NUTS: Spread whole or chopped almonds on a jelly roll pan or other pan with sides (nuts tend to slide off a cookie sheet) and place in a preheated 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes. When the nuts smell toasty and a COOLED nuts is crisp and crunchy, the nuts are ready; watch carefully to avoid burning. Let the nuts cool in the pan on a wire rack.