Heat oven to 350*F.

Prepare cake pans by rubbing the sides of the pans with a little oil or butter and dusting with flour.  Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper.  For the cake shown, I baked in three 7" pans.

In a large mixing bowl (the bowl of an electric mixer), stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Beat on medium speed for one minute.

Stir in hot water or coffee (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.

Bake until the top of the cake is smooth and has a slight dome and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  I baked the cake shown in three 7" pans and baked them about 30 minutes.  You will need to adjust the bake time based on the pans you choose.

 In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute).

Add cream cheese, and then beat until smooth.

One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition.

Add vanilla, and blend to combine.

Add about 2 tablespoon of cream, and continue beating.

Add the remaining 3 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.

Add an additional 1 tablespoons cream until desired consistency is reached.

Add salt.

Continue to beat another minute or so.  The frosting should now be smooth and fluffy.

Scoop about 1 cup of frosting into a bowl and set aside.  This will be the white frosting for the top portion of the cake.

Into another bowl, scoop about 2 1/2 cups of frosting and set aside.  This will be colored orange later.

Remaining in the bowl should be about 1+ cup of frosting. Color this frosting yellow. Add this yellow frosting to a large piping bag, fitted with a large round tip.

Now, put the frosting that was reserved to turn orange back into the mixing bowl (no need to clean out) and color it orange. Add the orange frosting to a large piping bag fitted with a large round tip.

Add the first layer of cake to a cake board (or cake stand).  Add a layer of yellow icing ( using about half of what has been colored yellow).

Add another layer of cake, and then a layer of orange frosting.

Add the third cake layer.

Use the reaming yellow icing to begin frosting the base of the cake.  This is done the most easily by piping a line of icing directly onto the cake.  Spread gently.  The icing does not need to be perfect at this stage.

Next, add orange frosting to the outside of the cake (again, this is easiest with a piping bag), and then spread as appropriate (but does not need to be perfect).

Now, add white frosting (spread or pipe) onto the top of the cake, and down the side just a bit (to meet the orange).

Once the cake is fully covered in frosting, move entire cake to the fridge or freezer to help the icing firm up.  After 15 minutes, remove from freezer and use a large offset spatula (warmed in hot water and then quickly dried) to smooth the icing as desired.

Prepare chocolate drip by heating the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a small bowl in the microwave.  Heat until warm, and then set on the counter for a minute to allow the chips to melt.  Stir until smooth.  Add chocolate to a small piping bag and then add drips of chocolate along the edge of the cake.  Move cake to the fridge to allow chocolate to cool.

Complete the decorating by using the remaining orange frosting (and a large open star tip, such as Wilton 1M) to add swirls of frosting to the top, then garnish with candy corn.

Chill cake until ready to serve.