• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (180C) or 325 FC (160C) for a convection oven. Grease 3 8-inch cake pans with non-stick or baker's floured spray.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix on low for a minute to combine dry ingredients. Add softened butter 1 Tablespoon at a time until well incorporated into the dry ingredients and no lumps of butter are visible.
• Next, whisk eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla together until well combined. With the mixer on low, add wet ingredients to dry ingredients in a steady stream until no dry ingredients are visible. Scrape down the bowl and beat for another 20 seconds.
• Fill the three pans evenly - I find a kitchen scale helpful for this part, and each of mine weighed out to about 550g. Bake for 30-35 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow cake layers to cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire cooling rack before removing from pans, and cool completely before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired.
• (The hang time while you're waiting for cake layers to cool is a great time to start prepping your frosting!)

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

• Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add vanilla and salt if needed and beat until well combined.
• (You can fill and/or crumb-coat your cake with white frosting if you'd like to use less gel food coloring - just wait until the final layer to split and color your frosting! Or you can use colored frosting -100% up to you!)
• When you’re ready, divide frosting into 3 equal parts and add gel food colors until desired color is reached. (Again; if you have time, making your frosting a day or so ahead and letting it sit overnight lets you get away with less gel color!)

Assembly

• Once your cakes are cool, level them (if needed/desired). This can be done with a cake leveler or a large serrated knife and a ruler.
• Place a smear of frosting on your cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center your first cake layer in the center of the circle.
• Spread the layer with frosting (or - optional - pipe a border if you’d rather fill it with chocolate ganache like I did in the video (1 cup semisweet chocolate chips melted with 3/4 cup whipping cream and cooled to a spreadable consistency). Add the next cake layer on top. Repeat the process with your remaining cake layers.
• Now you're ready to crumb-coat . If you're unfamiliar with crumb-coating, it's just what it sounds like – spreading a thin layer of frosting over the entire outside of the cake to keep crumbs out of your final layer. I usually do this with an offset spatula.

Decorating

• Once your crumb coat has set (this takes about 5-10 minutes in the fridge), add your layers of colored frosting and smooth. I like to use an offset spatula and cake scraper for this part – the colors will bleed into each other a bit, but cleaning off the cake scraper between every pass smoothing the cake will help! Once your cake is covered, place it into the fridge or freezer to set the frosting.
• Transfer your remaining colored frosting to small piping bags (or ziplock bags), and pipe rows of frosting onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Lift one side of the plastic wrap and pull it over the top to the other side of the rows, creating a ‘roll’ of frosting. Trim off the tip of the plastic wrap, and transfer the ‘roll’ to a piping bag fitted with a star-tip nozzle (I used my large 1B nozzle).
• Pipe swirls around the top border of the cake, and add sprinkles if you’d like! Add your figurines on top – and you’re done!