Yellow Cake

The usual search for a recipe oftentimes includes many failed attempts to find the end result you are looking for.  I am often surprised at how completely fail some recipes are. We aren't just talking, 'oh, that's not as good as I expected',
or, 'maybe I didn't do it right'. Like-'Look at this! This is ridiculous!' or the flavor is absolutely horrid, the bread is dry and dense, etc. Cakes, I have to say, are one of the guiltiest.
We make a cake, envisioning that absurdly fluffy, completely un-frostable mess that comes from a box, and we end up with a muffin-like products with a tight crumb, begging to be redeemed by a delectable frosting that will somehow hide this hideous disgrace that is trying to pass for a cake.
It has happened to me over and over again. I always think it is my fault, too. I want to be the domestic housewife that opens her pantry and makes a delicious birthday cake, but instead, I feel Duncan Hines calling my name. It is whispering, "Your cakes are failures. Just use me." But, I resolved to turn to a few of my favorite blogs and sites and find a cake worth making.
Enter Yellow Birthday Cake.

 I google yellow cake and BAM, there it is. My new favorite food blog has a recipe for this very item. This is a lady I trust. I made her great roasted tomato soup, her apple pie cookies, pear crumble, these cinnamon struesel doughnut muffin things, I have plans to make her knish, what more can I say. She inspires me. I decided to try her cake. It was perfect. I didn't even have the right ingredients and it was perfect.
Exit Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker, and Pillsbury
Order has been restored to the world. I am no longer under the confines of a pre-packaged powder that is trying to rule my life.
Try it with chocolate frosting....

Yellow Cake
from smitten kitchen
Yield: Two 9-inch round, 2-inch tall cake layers, and, in theory, 22 to 24 cupcakes, two 8-inch squares or a 9×13 single-layer cake, 18 or so cupcakes
The original recipe calls for 2 cups buttermilk, instead of buttermilk and sour cream. Do what you will.

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

My sister, pretending like she's helping

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
2 sticks  unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk well-shaken
1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then spray with non-stick cooking spray.

What I look like when I'm making 200 cupcakes.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.
Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.

For cupcakes, bake at 375 for 18 minutes, rotating and switching pans halfway through.