Golden Layer Cake

I signed up for Wilton cake decorating classes a few weeks ago at my local Michaels. I thought it might be fun to learn some decorating tricks and tips rather than just always slathering on icing with a knife. This week was the second class in Course 1, so I actually baked a cake, frosted it and took it in to class with me to decorate. I had to make 4 different colors of icing this week in 3 different consistencies (although we didnt even use 2 colors but oh well). The first class you just sit and watch the instructor. She showed us how to prepare the icing in different consistencies and some basic piping bag techniques and skills. We learned some pretty basic decorating stuff this week, star tip patterns and zig zags, dots, and pattern transfer. Practiced writing a little bit and that was about the extent of it. The first course isn't too challenging but its nice to learn the basic tips and techniques properly from someone who has been doing it for years.
So far I have invested about $60, $25 for the class plus supplies. I bought more than I needed to because I plan to take Course 2 as well, so I bought a 50 piece decorating kit that had more tips in it, a tackle box to carry all my supplies in, a turn table, lots of piping bags, gel coloring, piping gel, meringue powder... Luckily I always have a Michael's coupon so I was able to get most everything at 40% off.
For the cake this week, I decided to experiment with a new recipe. I wanted something basic that would easily stack and mix with the buttercream frosting. The Wilton buttercream isnt exactly gourmet (or even really good) but it definitely wouldn't stand up to a really elaborate cake. I found this recipe for yellow cake in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything
and it worked out great. It was very light and tasted great. This one is going to be a go-to recipe for basic cake/cupcakes. (Sorry for the bad picture, this is the "extra" 3rd layer because I sent the decorated cake to work with Todd and forgot to tell him to take a picture when he cut into it.)

Golden Layer Cake
10 T unsalted butter, softened
9 oz (2 cups) cake flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk (I used skim)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour 2 9" pans or 3 8" pans (I think in the future I will just use 2 8" pans - 3 resulted in 3 very thin cakes). In a mixing bowl, cream butter until smooth and gradually add the sugar. Beat until light, 3-4 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the extracts. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and add to the egg mixture by hand in parts, alternating with the milk. Stir just until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pans (to get your cakes to be the same thickness, divide batter evenly by putting in 1/2 cup cake batter into each pan, alternating until you've used all the batter). Bake for about 25 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, rotating the pans in the oven so each cooks the same amount of time in each position (this will help keep them level).