"I believe this is an amazing recipe. I ended up having to make adjustments due to what I had on hand and the volume I needed to make. Using cake flour, 1 cup less oil (at triple the amounts and 1 cup more of the buttermilk (still tripled), and tripling the cocoa twice (so 9 tsp) the cupcakes came out wonderful. Yes the bottom is slightly oily and that is the reason it only 4 stars instead of 5. Since I made jumbo cupcakes the bake time was 30 min. Paula'a recipes never fail to get rave reviews from our house! "

"I believe this is an amazing recipe. I ended up having to make adjustments due to what I had on hand and the volume I needed to make. Using cake flour, 1 cup less oil (at triple the amounts) and 1 cup more of the buttermilk (still tripled), and tripling the cocoa twice (so 9 tsp) the cupcakes came out wonderful. Yes the bottom is slightly oily and that is the reason it only 4 stars instead of 5. Since I made jumbo cupcakes the bake time was 30 min. Paula'a recipes never fail to get rave reviews from our house! "

"Let me just lay it all out there. During the planning, I thought how easy will this be, piece of cake. During all the steps, I thought these had better be worth it, and at the end; nothing short of marvelous! Yes the dough is VERY sticky. But by the second roll out, its no worse than any other cookie dough, if you use enough powdered sugar. Yes, like the other reviews, freeze the dough before rolling out the first time. I didn't take the time to arrange almond slices, I used the meringue like frosting and then applied sprinkles and popped them in the oven. Try and fit as many on the cookie sheet as possible since the oven being turned off and on does take time. There is a very good reason these cookies are rated intermediate, but will be making them again.

"Let me just lay it all out there. During the planning, I thought how easy will this be, piece of cake. During all the steps, I thought these had better be worth it, and at the end; nothing short of marvelous! Yes the dough is VERY sticky. But by the second roll out, its no worse than any other cookie dough, if you use enough powdered sugar. Yes, like the other reviews, freeze the dough before rolling out the first time. I didn't take the time to arrange almond slices, I used the meringue like frosting and then applied sprinkles and popped them in the oven. Try and fit as many on the cookie sheet as possible since the oven being turned off and on does take time. There is a very good reason these cookies are rated intermediate, but will be making them again.