Makes two 9 inch rounds OR three 8 inch rounds OR one 9 by 13 sheet cake OR one bundt cake OR 24 cupcakes
I highly recommend weighing your ingredients, as things like flour can compact during shipping and storage. If you just refuse to buy a food scale, scooping the dry ingredients into the measuring cup and then leveling it off with a butter knife is the best way. You need cake flour for this recipe. Swansdown and softasilk are the 2 major brands you can find at any grocery store.
14 ounces (3 cups) cake flour
14 ounces (2 cups) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
11 ounces buttermilk
4 large eggs or 6 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Heat oven to 350 and prepare pans by spraying with cooking spray and placing parchment cut to fit in the bottoms of the pans.
Combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in your mixer bowl. Mix buttermilk, whole eggs (for yellow cake) or egg whites (for white cake), vanilla, and almond extract together in a spouted liquid measuring cup.
Turn mixer to low speed and let the dry ingredients combine for 30 seconds. Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time (drop in 1 tablespoon per second). Mix until the butter pieces are small like peas. Increase the mixer speed to medium and pour in half the liquid ingredients. Increase speed to medium high and mix 1 minute. Batter should be thick and creamy. Decrease speed to medium low and slowly pour in the remaining liquid ingredients. Mix just until combined, about 20 seconds.
Scrape bowl and fold batter with a spatula to ensure it is well mixed and divide among the baking pans.
Cupcakes: let the batter sit in the cupcake pans out on the counter for 15 minutes, then bake for 15-22 minutes until firm to the touch
9 or 8 inch layers: bake 25 to 35 minutes until firm to the touch in the center
9 by 13 pan: bake 35 to 45 minutes until firm to the touch in the center
Bundt pan: bake 45 to 60 minutes until firm to the touch in the center.
Let rest 10 minutes, then turn out to cool.
VARIATIONS:
Red velvet: add 1 tablespoon cocoa powder to the dry ingredients, and 1 tablespoon LorAnn red velvet coloring to the wet ingredients
Lemon: Add the zest of one lemon to the dry ingredients and replace the vanilla and almond extracts with 1 1/2 teaspoons pure lemon extract. Add 1 or 2 drops yellow food coloring to the liquid ingredients if desired.
Spice: Add 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice to the dry ingredients
Strawberry: pulverize 1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries into powder in a blender or food processor. Add to the dry ingredients. Add 1 or 2 drops pink food coloring to the wet ingredients as desired
Carrot: Add 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice to the dry ingredients. Shred 1/2 pound of carrots and fold them in to the batter before dividing it among the pans
Confetti: Fold in 1/3 cup flat round rainbow sprinkles to the batter before dividing it among the pans
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