A day or two ahead of when you plan to make your cake, take 3 cups of heavy cream (2 ⅓ for the whipped cream, and ⅔ for the ganache), and heat it in the microwave or in a saucepan until it becomes warm - slightly above body temperature. Add 2 tablespoons of Peach Serenity tea mix and 1 teaspoon of dried hibiscus (if using), stir, and pour into a bowl and cover, and let infuse in the fridge for 24-48 hours. Then, heat your milk in a saucepan until it foams at the top and starts to form a skin, or until it reaches 155-160 degrees F. Add 1 ½ tablespoons of Peach Serenity tea mix to your milk, stir, and let sit off the heat, covered, for 30 minutes for the tea to infuse the milk. Then pour the milk into a separate bowl and cover, and let sit in the fridge for 24-48 hours.

For the cake: Preheat your oven to 350 F, and line and grease 3 6-inch cake pans. Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature (the secret to a good cake).

In a medium bowl, combine cake flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon if using. Whisk to combine, and then put your 2 sticks of butter and your white and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Cream until the sugar granules have dissolved into the butter (if you feel the butter-sugar mixture in your fingers, you should feel little to no granules of sugar). Beat in your eggs, egg white, lime juice and vanilla until just combined.

Then, take out your milk infused with Peach Serenity tea mix and strain out the tea, leaving yourself with the infused milk. Add ⅓ of the flour mix, whisk (I prefer hand-whisking so you don’t overwork your cake batter, but feel free to beat it on low speed), add ½ of the infused milk, and repeat with the flour until the flour and milk are gone. Fold in the peaches with a spatula, separate into the 3 cake pans, and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on your countertop for a few minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool completely in the fridge.

For the spiced peach filling:

Chop up the peaches into chunks, then add the peaches and all the other ingredients except the cornstarch and water into a saucepan (feel free to add a bit of bourbon at this point too). Cook on medium-low heat and stir frequently until the peaches are soft and tender. Then mix cornstarch in water in a small bowl, and add to the saucepan. Cook until the peaches look syrupy and smell fragrant. Cool in the fridge until cool to touch but still syrupy.

For the whipped cream:

Let beaters and mixing bowl sit in the fridge or freezer until chilled beforehand. Strain all of the cream, and set aside ⅔ cup of the infused cream for the ganache in a bowl. Add 2 ⅓ cups of infused cream to the mixing bowl along with your choice of sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Whip until it nearly reaches soft peaks, then add in your cornstarch (this stabilizes your whipped cream) and whip until fluffy, but not until the point when it has little lumps. Set in the fridge.

For the ganache:

Heat the ⅔ cup cream until foaming and scalding hot in a saucepan as you did with the milk, then add the chocolate (chopped up) into a heatproof bowl and add your hot cream to it. Let stand for 5 minutes for the chocolate to melt, then stir together with a whisk until it becomes one liquid mixture. Set aside (not in the fridge).

Assembly:

Take your cakes out of the fridge and cut off the top domed part so you have even layers (I like using a bread knife for this). Mix honey and water in a small bowl until evenly mixed, and using a pastry brush, brush it all over your cake layers (so they don’t go dry). Take your first cake layer, dollop a little whipped cream on your cake stand so your cake layer sticks, put the cake layer on the stand, and add whipped cream and smooth out. Spoon on a generous portion of peach filling, then add more whipped cream and a second layer of cake. Repeat until your cakes are all stacked up, then add whipped cream to the top and frost the outside of the cake with an offset spatula or a cake scraper. Let sit in the fridge for ten minutes, then add ganache to a plastic bag or a piping bag and cut a small hole off (your ganache should be fluid and slightly thick, but not frosting-like or firm). Take the cake out of the fridge and drip ganache down the sides, then add remaining ganache in the center of the cake and smooth it out with an offset spatula. Let the ganache on the top of the cake harden a little in the fridge before topping with more whipped cream on top (piped), extra peach filling, white chocolate, mint leaves, and flaky salt. Cut, serve, and enjoy!