Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 3, 8" round pans with parchment paper. Butter and flour sides (I use Baking PAM for this).

With a mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light in fluffy.

Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping down sides as needed.

In a small bowl, mix together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and baking powder.

In another glass that can pour, mix together buttermilk and vanilla.

Gradually beat in flour mixture and buttermilk milk mixture, alternating. Begin and end with flour.

Divide batter among the 3 prepared pans and bake for 25-28 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of pan comes out clean.

Beat together butter and shortening until light and fluffy.

In small bowl, mix salt, cocoa powder and powdered sugar together. Beat into butter mixture about 1/2 cup at a time.

Beat in vanilla and heavy whipping cream until smooth and fluffy.

Melt chocolate in microwave safe bowl on high in 30 second increments. Stir well after each increment until smooth.

Use spatula to spread chocolate out on parchment paper. Roll parchment paper up into a tube and put in fridge for 30 minutes. When ready to use, gently unfold parchment paper and break the chocolate off as you go.

Level cakes.

Place half of buttercream filling on two layers. Stack, ending with final layer that does not have buttercream. Use a spatula to spread buttercream around the sides. This is a naked cake so you should see cake through some of the frosting - it almost looks like a crumb layer.

Make ganache: Put chocolate chips and corn syrup in heat proof bowl. Heat heavy whipping cream in microwave safe bowl until boiling. Pour cream over chocolate chips and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk together.

Transfer ganache to a squeeze bottle and use bottle to pour ganache around edges/sides of cake. Fill in center of top of cake with remaining ganache.

Use chocolate chards to decorate top of cake.