Mother's Day Memories: "Granma's Buttermilk Layer Cake"

This year marks my 4th Mother's Day without my Granma Cleva. I miss her countlessly each and every day. This year I decided I would create a special cake in her memory. I looked no further for a "special" ingredient than one of her favorites throughout her life: buttermilk. To me, buttermilk is steeped in the Southern landscape. It was surely passed on to Granma through her mother, Alabama belle and my namesake Ollie Eugenia as Ollie began life as a wife and mother along Northeast Oklahoma's Illinois River. Granma never wavered in her love for buttermilk through the years. Some of my early childhood memories are when she would enjoy a concoction of cornbread soaked in buttermilk.

The woman who was of the utmost inspiration to me in her kitchen passed down her love of buttermilk to me. When Granma had colon cancer surgery in 2008 and as a result, came down with a serious case of pneumonia in skilled nursing unit for after-care, I remember the moment I stood by her bedside in the hospital and she had fought off the pneumonia. She looked up at me and her first word was "buttermilk".
I decided I would take to my kitchen and create my take on a Southern classic, buttermilk cake. This layer cake was very well-received by my family members who taste-tested it for me. I was happy with how this cake turned out and I have lovingly given it the name, "Granma's Buttermilk Cake". I think she would like this cake and that thought brings a smile to my face.

 

"Granma's Buttermilk Layer Cake"                                                                                                                                                   

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat two 8-inch round cake pans with cooking spray and dusting of flour. In large bowl, add flour, baking soda and salt. Stir until combined and set aside. In large mixing bowl, add shortening and beat with mixer at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add dry flour mixture to shortening mixture in thirds, adding buttermilk to mixture between flour additions, until all of buttermilk and flour mixture has been added. Beat at medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Add vanilla and mix only until combined. Pour batter into cake pans. Bake 22-25 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.                      

"Granma's Buttermilk Frosting"

 *makes 4 cups (frosts 2 layer cake)

2 sticks butter, softened
8 cups powdered sugar
½ cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 
In large bowl, add butter and beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add powdered sugar, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat at medium speed 5 minutes, or until smooth.  If thinner frosting is desired, add an additional 1/2 teaspoon of buttermilk to mixture until it reaches your desired consistency. Frost cooled cake. Enjoy!