Preheat oven to 350; adjust oven rack one-third up from the bottom.

Butter or spray a tube pan (10-12 cup capacity) and dust with fine, dry bread crumbs.

Cut each cookie into quarters. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

Beat the butter until soft and add the vanilla and almond extracts.

Add the sugar.

Add the eggs, one at a time, until blended.

On low speed, add the sifted flour ingredients alternately with the sour cream (dry ingredients in 3 additions, sour cream in 2).

Place 1 ½ cups of the batter into the cake pan and use a spoon to form a shallow trench in the mixture.

To the remaining cake batter, add the cookies and fold in.

Add the mixture with the cookies to the trench with a teaspoon.

After the batter has been added, smooth it out with the bottom of the spoon.

Spread the batter slightly up the sides of the pan, leaving a depression in the middle.

Bake the cake for 50 minutes - 1 hour or until a tester comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing the cake to a rack to cool completely.

For the optional glaze, melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over warm water.

Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the chocolate, stirring until melted and smooth.

Stir in the cream gradually.

Pour the glaze around the cake and over the top, letting it run down unevenly.

Let the cake stand until the glaze has set.