Baking Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Butter and flour two 8” or three 6” round cake pans or coat them with baking release spray. I use damp cake strips on my pans for more evenly baked layers.
2. Combine all ingredients for chai espresso swirl into a small bowl or ramekin. You’ll use half in the cake and the remainder in your frosting. 
3. Add and whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. Set aside.  
4. Using the paddle attachment in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat your sugar, butter, and vanilla extract together on medium speed for 4 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
5. Add your eggs and canola oil to your primary mixing bowl. Mix on low speed for about 3 minutes.
6. Add half of your buttermilk and half of your flour. Mix, repeat, and gently mix all ingredients together until just combined. 
7. Pour and evenly spread half of the batter into your prepared cake pans. Disperse the chai espresso swirl into your pans before pouring remaining batter into each of them. Take a butterknife to the pan to gently swirl design.
8. Bake for 35-40 minutes. You’ll know they’re done when layers appear buttery and dense but bounce back at the touch of your finger.
9. Let cakes cool in pans about 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. 

Frosting

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the butter until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the cream cheese and mix for another 1 minute until well combined and smooth.
2. Mix in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Continue mixing until fully combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Remove half of the frosting and set aside in another bowl.
4. Add remaining chai espresso mix to mixing bowl and incorporate until well-combined.
5. Put white frosting in one piping bag and brown in another.

Cake Assembly

1. Pipe or spread a dollop of cream cheese frosting onto a cake circle to act as glue to hold the layer in place. Set first cake layer on top of that.
2. Pipe about a quarter of your frosting on top of the bottom layer and spread evenly with a cake spatula or large metal spoon. 
3. Place second cake layer on top of the first and repeat steps with final layer.
4. Starting from the base of the cake and moving to the top, pipe a thick layer of frosting all around the three layers of your cake’s sides and on its top.
5. Place a cake scraper against the side of the cake and gently pull the cake around to smooth out bubbles in the frosting.
6. Pipe lines of the brown frosting around and on top of the cake, using the cake scraper to even it out and create a marbled effect.
7. Add detailing with open star tip for remaining frosting.