Festive Eggnog Layer Cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with a cooking spray (Baker's Joy is my favorite) and a wax paper circle fitted to the bottom of the pan. Alternatively, you can grease and lightly flour the pans.

Sift the cake flour and then measure by spooning and leveling it in your measuring cup. Add the cake flour, baking powder, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), cream the butter for on high for two minutes until it's creamy. Add in sugar and continue to mix on high for another two minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Turn the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix for one minute on high, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more.

With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the eggnog slowly and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps (without over-mixing). The batter will be slightly thick, but pourable.

Pour batter evenly into prepared cake pans (no more than 2/3 of the way full) and bake for 35-40 minutes. They're done when they spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for five minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack for an additional few hours of cooling. Make sure they're entirely room temperature before applying any frosting.

With a hand mixer or paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream the butter on medium-high until it’s creamy and light (almost white) in color. About 7 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, ground nutmeg, and ground cinnamon. With the mixer on low, add the spiced powdered sugar mixture a few cups at a time, scraping down after each addition and making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next one.

Add vanilla, eggnog, and salt and mix on low for another minute until fully incorporated.

Chop the white chocolate chips into smaller bits with a knife or food processor, then add them into a metal or glass bowl and set aside.

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the eggnog until it starts to simmer, stirring constantly to ensure it doesn't burn in the process. When you see that it’s just starting to boil, pour it over the white chocolate and let sit for about five seconds.

Whisk it together until it’s uniform in consistency and there are no bits of chocolate left on your whisk. Whiten or color the ganache with the food color gel (optional), then cool ganache at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes, or until the ganache itself is about room temperature.

Once they've cooled completely, fill and frost the Eggnog Cake layers with the Eggnog Buttercream before dripping the cake with Eggnog Ganache. To create the look pictured, drag a cake comb over the sides of the buttercream right after frosting them (I used this one by Wilton), then refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes to chill the buttercream before dripping with Eggnog Ganache. Here are some tips for creating the perfect ganache drip cake. Finish the design by piping swirls of Eggnog Buttercream around the top edge of the cake with Wilton Tip 1M, then sprinkle with ground nutmeg.