Vanilla Cake

Fill one of the layers with lemon curd or chocolate ganache, frost with buttercream.

Ingredients:
8 ounces room temperature unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
5 eggs at room temperature
3 cups all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 T vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
1 1/4 cup non-fat buttermilk

3 8-inch cake pans

nonstick cooking spray

Preparing the cake:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Spray the cake pans with non-stick spray. Cut parchment into rounds to cover the bottom of each pan. Spray the top of the parchment round once it's in place.

Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside in a bowl or onto a sheet of parchment paper.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy at least 5 minutes on high speed. Scrape sides of bowl every few minutes using the whisk attachment or a rubber spatula.

Add eggs one at a time. Making sure each egg is perfectly incorporated before you add another. Scraping down sides of bowl after every few eggs. Add vanilla extract and/ or vanilla seeds.

Add flour and buttermilk in alternative pours, about 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of buttermilk each go. Mix on slow speed and scrape the bowl during the process.

Once everything is well incorporated, use a plastic spatula to fold the batter a few more times until well-mixed.

Divide the batter between the cake pans. Bake for twenty to forty minutes. Check for doneness by pressing gently on the cake. If it leaves an indent, not done. If it bounces back gently without leaving a mark, it's done. If the cake doesn't budge when you poke it, overdone.

Let cake cool completely before filling.