Bakerella's Yellow Cake

I came across this recipe for yellow cake on Bakerella's website.  I was intrigued and wanted to make it right away.  I liked it but wasn't wowed by it.  Bakerella mentioned spraying her cake layers with a simple syrup solution.  That's a good way to keep the layers moist.  I didn't do that and my cake was a BIT dry.  Just a bit.  This is almost a "white" cake,  It tastes like a lot of white cakes I've had but it has a lot of egg yolks in it so it's definitely a yellow.  It has a wonderful flavor and a nice fine crumb.  It would have been wonderful with a chocolate icing but I went ahead and used a basic American buttercream icing and colored it pink like Bakerella's.  I must admit, this is the best from scratch yellow cake recipe I've made but then again, I haven't made a lot of yellow cakes.  I would make this again but next time, I would use a simple syrup on my layers while they were cooling.  The instructions on Bakerella's website say to wrap each layer in plastic wrap after turning them out of the pan. That was interesting.  I hadn't done that before but I can imagine that it made a difference.  The plastic wrap holds a lot of steam in and therefore must add moistness.  That was a good tip that I will use again on future recipes.  I made a double recipe and it filled three 9 inch cake pans nicely and produced 3 thick layers.  Since I made a double recipe, between the cake AND the icing, I used, literally 2 pounds of butter!  Yes...EIGHT sticks!  Four sticks for the cake and 4 for the icing.  Yikes!!  But yummmmm.

Moist Yellow Cake
Bakerella

1 cup (2 sticks) of butter (room temperature)
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs (room temperature)
3 cups of sifted self-rising flour (White Lily)
1 cup of whole milk (room temperature)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (McCormicks)
1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease and flour (3) 8 inch cake pans.
• Using a mixer, cream butter until fluffy.
• Add sugar and continue to cream for about 7 minutes.
• Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each egg is added.
• Add flour and milk (alternating to creamed mixture), beginning and ending with flour.
• Add vanilla and butter flavoring to mix; until just mixed.
• Divide batter equally into three cake pans.
• Hold each layer about 3 inches above your counter and carefully drop the pans flat onto counter several times to ensure release of any air bubbles. This will help you have a more level cake.
• Bake for 25 – 30 minutes (depending on your oven) until done.
• Cool in pans for 5 – 10 minutes.
• Remove and immediately wrap each layer in plastic wrap to seal in moisture. Cool completely on wire racks.
• Once cooled, you are ready to assemble your cake.