Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare three 8 inch round pans with baker's floured spray (or grease and line with parchment rounds).

Mix together all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) in a stand mixer with a paddle until fully combined. Mix chunks of room-temperature butter slowly into the dry mix, on a low speed. Continue to mix until no large chunks of butter remain, and the mixture becomes crumbly.

Divide batter evenly between the prepared cake pans (I find a kitchen scale helpful for this part). This guarantees your layers will bake to be the same height.

Bake for 34-37 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Allow cake layers to cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire cooling rack before removing from pans. Cool completely before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired.

Once the layers have fully cooled, they can be leveled and any caramelized bits can be trimmed from the sides / top of the cake using a serrated knife if desired. Be sure the layers are completely cooled or chilled before trimming. If you try to trim the layers while they’re still warm, they will crumble and break.

Sprinkle a few chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans over the filling, and add your next cake layer on top. (You'll see me add a few candy melts to the filling in the video - thought the extra color would look cool cutting into the cake but they weren't really visible. I wouldn't bother. ;) )

Now you're ready to crumb-coat . If you're unfamiliar with crumb-coating, it's just what it sounds like - a thin layer of frosting over the entire outside of the cake to keep crumbs out of your final layer.

Place heavy cream and white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on 50% power in 30-second intervals until smooth, stirring in between. Divide into 4 parts. Stir in blue, yellow, and red gel food coloring to the first 3, and espresso powder and an additional teaspoon of whipping cream to the 4th.

Allow drip mixtures have cooled to a moderate temperature – they should feel slightly warm and still be fairly liquid. (Too cold and they won't drip; too hot and they might melt your frosting). Transfer to 4 squeeze bottles or piping bags. (Or you can use a spoon; it will just give you a little less control.)

Okay! Now that all the pieces are ready, it’s time to decorate your cake! My cake was pretty well set after about 20 minutes in the freezer, which was what I wanted to make sure that the drips would set and the coffee cup would stay put.

Mark eight sections on the top of the cake – I used a large kitchen knife; you can use whatever’s large and straight and close-by. With the red, yellow, and blue ganache in turn, pipe a border of ganache around the top of the two of the sections and fill it in, allowing some ganache to drip down the side of the cake. Leave two sections (next to each other) empty.

Just behind those empty sections, press the coffee cup upside down into the top of the cake at an angle, leaving a bit of room to drizzle the brown ganache underneath. Drizzle brown ganache under the rim of the cup with a small container or spoon, allowing it to run away from the cup and drizzle down the side of the cake. It should set fairly quickly if your cake is frozen.

I decorated around the top of the cake around the cup with swirls of frosting to resemble whipped cream, and just left the cake base alone this time. I’ve added leftover filling, more frosting, and more chocolate-covered espresso beans to the base of the cake before though. Your option!

Refrigerate until ready to eat - and enjoy!