Directions:

Move your oven rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Butter the insides of three 8" cake pans and line the bottoms with a circle of parchment paper. Dust a very light coating of flour inside the pans.

In a bowl, sift together cake flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisk in the salt for 30 seconds. Set that bowl aside.

Separate your eggs for the amounts listed in the recipe and reserve the extra whites for another use. The yolks you can place in a small bowl and set aside.

Using a hand or stand mixer, whisk your egg whites on medium speed until it looks like shaving cream, then pour in the sugar (labeled 'for meringue') about ½ tsp at a time. Wait about 5 seconds before adding the next bit of sugar and whisk on high speed until you reach stiff peaks. Set that aside for now.

In a large bowl (either with a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or hand mixer), cream together on medium-high speed the softened butter and sugar (labeled 'for butter') for about 2-3 minutes. Add the oil and vanilla and continue to mix on medium-high speed for another 2 minutes. The mixture should be very white and slightly fluffier.

Add in all of your egg yolks and mix on medium-high speed until yellow in color and slightly thickened, about one minute more.

Now we are going to alternate dry (flour mixture) and buttermilk. Add ⅓ of the flour mixture, and mix on low speed until almost all the flour has been mixed in. Scape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all the flour is gone.

Add half the buttermilk, mix, and scrape. Add another ⅓ of the flour, mix, and scrape. Add the rest of the buttermilk, mix, and scrape. Add the final ⅓ of the flour, which I like to do by hand with a spatula to avoid over-mixing.

Fold the meringue into the batter.

Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached. Let the cakes cool completely.