Preheat the oven to 325 degrees,  Grease and flour three (8x2 inch) round cake pans. (You can also bake two 8 or 9 inch cake layers and bake a bit longer as needed).

In the mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients: cake mix, flour, and pudding mix.  Whisk to blend.  Add the eggs, sour cream, water, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.  Mix on low speed to blend increasing to medium speed for 1 minute.  Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix another minute.  

Divide the batter among the three prepared pans.  Makes about 6-6.5 cups of batter.

Bake at 325 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. It should also spring back when lightly pressed with your finger.  

Add butter and mix on low to medium speed until smooth. Add vanilla and blend into the butter. Add powdered sugar, salt, and cocoa powder.

Add most of the milk. Begin mixing at low speed so you won't have a cloud of powdered sugar in your kitchen.

Continue to mix adding remaining milk as needed. It may take 5 to 6 minutes to reach the smoothness and consistency you like. It will take longer if using a hand mixer. As you mix the frosting will become very smooth. You can add additional milk (1 Tablespoon at a time) if the frosting is too thick or additional powdered sugar if too soft.

Place the 5 oz. dark chocolate or 6 oz semi sweet chocolate into a microwave safe bowl.

Pour 5 oz. heavy cream over the chocolate and place in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Remove and stir. Microwave for 15 seconds more and stir. Repeat if necessary. When the chocolate has melted almost completely with just a few small soft pieces remaining, allow it to sit for a few minutes. The remaining pieces should melt away.

The ganache will thicken as it cools. Cool for about 15 minutes or until you can pipe drips along the inside of your bowl and get the look that you are going for. (If the ganache is too warm, the drips will run all the way down. If they only drip part of the way down the bowl, it is ready. Some of this comes down to personal preference.)

You will be using this in between cake layers as a drizzle as well as a ganache drip around the sides of the cake and a glaze for the top of the cake.

Place first layer on cake plate or pedestal. Spread with chocolate buttercream and top with sprinkling of almonds, chocolate chips, ganache drizzle, and mini marshmallows. We used about ¼ cup almonds per layer, a few tablespoons chips, and about ½ cup marshmallows per layer. Adjust to your liking!

Top with the next cake layer, spread with frosting, and add on the toppings. Top with third cake layer, fill in any gaps in between layers with frosting. Frost as usual. I like to crumb coat (thin layer of frosting) and place in freezer for 15 minutes to firm things up before moving on to the second coat of frosting. It makes things easier as the layers are less likely to shift while you work.

I smoothed around the sides of the cake with my bench scraper, piped a ganache drip around the top edge, applied additional ganache on top of the cake, sprinkled with nuts and marshmallows, and drizzled additional ganache.

As an optional step, you can pipe a top border as we did. I chilled the cake briefly to firm up the ganache a bit before applying the border so it will pipe on more easily. I used a star tip 21 to apply a border of piped shells.

Decorate the cake however you like! If you aren't comfortable with applying a ganache drip, simply glaze the top with ganache and sprinkle with toppings- you can't go wrong ;0)