Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 8 inch pans. I also like to line my pans with circles of parchment or waxed paper.

This recipe uses the Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing.

Add dry ingredients to the bowl of your mixer and mix for one minute to blend (sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt)

Add butter a few slices at a time and mix until it reaches a crumbly, sandy texture. Be careful not to over-mix beyond "sandy" consistency.

In another bowl, combine sour cream, eggs, milk, and vanilla, and peppermint extract. Using a fork, mix together. This is all of your wet ingredients except for the coffee, it will be added to the batter later.

Set a timer for 1 ½ minutes and SLOWLY add half of your egg mixture to your butter/flour mixture while mixing. Start mixer on low speed then increase to medium for the remainder of the 1 ½ minutes. Do Not Mix Above Medium Speed.

Stop mixer, scrape the sides and bottom of bowl, and add half of the remaining egg mixture. Mix on medium speed for 20 seconds.

Stop mixer, scrape down the sides if necessary, and add the last of the egg mixture. Mix for 20 more seconds on medium speed.

Slowly add HOT coffee and mixing for 30 seconds to blend. Batter will be runny but that is okay!

This recipe makes about 9 ½ cups of batter.Pour into 3 prepared 8 inch pans and bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until the center of the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.

In a small saucepan add the sugar and water. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat. Stir until sugar dissolves.

Let this cool before brushing onto the cake. You can store leftover syrup in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. Do not put too much on the cake layers or they will become soggy.

If you'd like to you can use a fork or toothpick to make holes in the top of the cake layers before brushing (preferably with a pastry brush) the simple syrup onto each layer.

Mix the instant coffee granules into the ¼ cup of hot water to dissolve, set aside to cool slightly.

Beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. Blend in the vanilla and cocoa powder and salt.

Add half of the powdered sugar and half of the coffee. Beat at medium speed until the powdered sugar is incorporated.

Add the remaining powdered sugar and coffee and mix at medium speed another 3 to 6 minutes scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally.

This recipe makes 6 cups of frosting.

If your consistency is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If too thick, add a bit more water or milk, a teaspoon at a time.

Chill the whisk attachment or beaters of a handheld mixer in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

In a medium sized bowl, add the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and peppermint extract. Mix until blended. Slowly add the heavy cream and beat until fluffy- it may take 2 minutes.

This is a soft filling and so you'll want to pipe a dam of frosting about ½ inch from the edge of the cake layers, then spread filling within the dam. Makes about 3 cups.

Place first cake layer on cake base or pedestal.

Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the coffee simple syrup over the top.

Pipe a dam/ring of mocha buttercream about ¼ inch to ½ inch from the edge of the cake layer. Fill with Whipped Peppermint Cream Cheese Filling.

**If you would like to settle the cake (as explained in the post), wrap the tier with plastic wrap, place a "weight" on top (cake pan, book, etc.) to give a light, steady pressure. Sit for a few hours or overnight. Remember the filling is perishable and so refrigerate as needed.

Frost the cake with the Mocha Buttercream Frosting. Top it off with the remaining Whipped Peppermint Cream Cheese. (I used a 6B piping tip to cover the top of the cake)

As a final touch, I used Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chips around the border, I used a tip 21 to add a shell border around the bottom of the cake, and sprinkled crushed candy canes over the top.