Vanilla Cake

Method

1. prep10 min
   everything at room temperature
   butter, eggs and milk out ahead — creaming is an emulsion, and cold ingredients split it; a curdled-looking batter bakes into a dense, greasy band at the cake's base
2. whisk2 min
   flour + baking powder + salt so the leavener is everywhere before it meets liquid — a pocket of baking powder is a bitter tunnel in the crumb
3. mix5 min
   medium-high, until pale and fluffy
   butter + sugar well past 'combined' — the sugar crystals are cutting millions of air cells into the fat, and those cells are most of the cake's rise; undercreaming here is why homemade layers come out squat
4. mix3 min
   one egg at a time
   + eggs singly, each fully absorbed before the next, then vanilla — dumped together they flood the emulsion faster than the fat can hold them
5. fold3 min
   alternating, flour in three, milk in two
   dry and milk in alternating additions ending on flour, stopped at the last streak — flour that meets this much liquid wants to build gluten, and every extra stroke trades tenderness for chew
6. bake30 min
   350°F, two 8-inch pans, until a tester comes out clean
   divided evenly, on the same rack — the layers are done when the edges pull from the pan and the center springs back; opening the door before 20 minutes drops the oven and the middle with it
7. rest15 min
   10 in the pan, then on a rack
   cakes are structurally liquid at oven temperature — turned out hot they break under their own weight, left in the pan they steam soggy; ten minutes, then out to cool completely before any frosting touches them