Mile High Butttermilk Cake

O.k…well maybe not a mile high.

This is a three layer cake that is moist and has a unique flavor that you can’t put your finger on…It is the buttermilk of course. Delicately tangy. Very vanilla. Moist, rich, delicious. I love it. I think it is my favorite white cake.

I found it in one of my vintage Farm Journal cookbooks, Blue Ribbon Recipes . I have changed it a bit but this is a fabulous recipe and would make a great wedding cake.

Since the cookbook is circa 1969 I am going to use this as my entry in Carla’s Cookbook Challenge.

The layers were thick and so the cake was very tall. I used straws to keep it upright, and the layers from slipping sideways. I used four straws, as here, and then pushed them into the cake so they did not show. See? I am stripping the pocket doors in the background..I haven’t gotten far…I feel like standing on a corner holding a sign that says “Will trade baked goods for restoration work”

I am pretty sure that the cake would stay moist for several days but this cake lasted all of …uh… thirty minutes…The benefit was that the family was totally quiet during the ceremonial eating of the cake…other than a few sighs, and mmmmmm’s….and lip smacking sounds there were twelve very quiet people at my table.

I filled it with a delicatelytangy orange curd, and frosted with the Perfect Party Cake Buttercream, but using orange juice rather than the lemon.

Be sure to use whole buttermilk and not the skim or low fat types.

Mile High Buttermilk Cake

3- 8″ layers

• 4 c cake flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c unsalted butter
• 3 c sugar
• 2 TBS vanilla
• 1 inch of vanilla bean, seeds scraped into the batter pod set aside (add the pod to the sugar bowl)
• 2 c buttermilk
• 6 egg whites, unbeaten

1. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
2. Cream butter and sugar unitl light and fluffy.
3. Beat in vanilla and vanilla scrapings.
4. Add dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beating well after each addition.
5. Add egg whites and beat at medium speed for two minutes.
6. Divide equally between 3 greased and wax paper lined 8″ round pans.
7. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 325 and bake for 25 minutes more, or until the cake tests done. Cool in pans 10 minutes, then turn out and finish cooling on racks.

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