• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit (177 degrees celsius). Grease three 6 inch cake pans or two 8 inch cake pans with oil and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Pour about 1 ½ cups of water into a saucepan, and let it slowly come to a boil as you prepare the batter.
• In a bowl whisk the flour, salt, baking soda+powder, and cocoa together. In a separate bowl (with tall sides to prevent splattering) combine the sugar, oil (if using coconut oil, make sure to melt it first), and eggs (you can also do this in a stand mixer). Beat with a hand mixer until pale and fluffy. Add half of the dry mixture and beat until combined. Add the milk and mix. Add the rest of the dry mixture and beat until combined. Pour in the vanilla and peppermint, measure out 1 cup of boiling water, and carefully pour it in the batter while the hand mixer is running. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula and continue mixing until you are certain everything is well combined.
• Evenly distribute the batter between the 2/3 cake pans. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out moist and crummy, NOT doughy! Once the cakes are baked, remove from the oven and let the layers cool completely.

Frosting:

• In a stand mixer, beat the butter and salt until fluffy and lightened in color. Add the peppermint extract. Measure the powdered sugar out into a large bowl. Let the stand mixer run on low speed. Gradually add roughly ½ cup scoops of the powdered sugar at a time to the mixer until you used up all 4 ½ cups. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula and continue beating for a few minutes until the frosting looks very white and fluffy (take your time on this step so that you get the lightest fluffiest frosting texture). 

Assembly:

• When the cake layers are completely cooled, remove them from their pans and peel off the parchment paper. Trim the top off of each cake layer using a knife so that you have even layers. Place a very small dollop of frosting on a plate (and the plate on top of a turn-table if you have one) and place a cake layer on top. Smooth an even layer of frosting on the layer. Place another cake layer on top of the frosted one and repeat until you have done this with all your layers. Coat the sides and top of the cake in frosting so that no chocolate cake is visible. If you like, you could decorate it with crushed candy canes and mini chocolate chips, the way I did or you can decorate it however you wish! Enjoy!