Basic 1-2-3-4 Yellow Birthday Cake with Chocolate Icing

An old-fashioned scratch layer cake, called 1-2-3-4 Yellow Cake because of the ingredient amounts.

📝 Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature (not melted!)
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups sifted self-rising flour (White Lily recommended)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Old Fashioned Boiled Peanut Butter Icing (click for recipe), or Chocolate Buttercream Icing (click for recipe)

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 9-inch cake pans.
2. 2Cream the butter by itself till fluffy and add the sugar, beating well for about 8 minutes.
3. 3Add the eggs, one at a time, and mixing them in well before adding the next one.
4. 4Start adding the flour and alternate adding in the flour and the milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour.
5. 5Add the vanilla and mix well. Equally divide the batter among the three pans.
6. 6Bake at 350 degrees F for about 25 to 30 minutes, shifting the pans from front to back halfway through.
7. 7Cool in the pan for about 5 to 10 minutes, or until cake begins to pull away from sides. Run a knife around the edges, place a cooling rack on top of the pan and invert, leaving on the cooling rack to cool completely.
8. 8Apply frosting to each layer of the cooled cake and finish icing the sides and tops.