Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray three 8-inch round baking pans with nonstick baking spray - make sure it’s the kind that has the flour in the spray!
In a bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the buttermilk, vegetable oil, and eggs on medium speed until combined. Beat in the vanilla extract. With the mixer still on medium speed, beat in the dry ingredients until they are just combined, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl if needed. Beat in the coffee until combined.
Divide and pour the batter into the prepared cake pans. Bake the cakes for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool for about 30 minutes in the pan, then carefully invert onto parchment paper to let them cool completely.
I actually like to do this part ahead of time. Once cool, I wrap the cake layers in plastic wrap and stick them in the freezer, if only for 30 minutes. This helps the frosting go on nicely!
When you’re ready to frost, add a dollop of frosting on top of two cakes and layer the cakes together. Add the remaining frosting and cover the cake.
Beat the cream cheese and butter together until creamy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the sugar and espresso powder until combined, another 5 minutes or so, being sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Take the white chocolate bars and use a vegetable peeler, peeling down the sides and edges to scrape curls and shavings. Shave as much of the chocolate down as you can!
Frost the cooled cake. Gently press the white chocolate shavings into the frosting.
We love to keep this cake in the fridge (Eddie loves cold cake!) and I would recommend that since it has the cream cheese frosting. Bring it out 30 to 60 minutes before serving so it can come to room temperature.
