I recently got this recipe and it is great for cupcakes but i hate that it uses the rubbing in method. Just give it a try.....1and a half cup self raising flour, half a cup of sugar, one third cup margarine, pinch of salt and a teaspoon of baking powder, one egg, one cup milk.....so you put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and rub in the margarine till it looks "bread crumby", add the beaten egg, milk and vanilla essence and mix well without beating. Bake at 180degrees. It yields about 12 cupcakes but I just double the recipe to get 24. Also, the lady who gave me the recipe said you could add another tsp of baking powder to your flour, and also you can use plain flour and double the baking powder!

I hope it helps.

Thanks everyone, I tried fromscratchsf's white cake and I seem to finally achieve some good results! Thank you so much fromscratchsf! I used egg whites, butter, and because I only had lite sour cream, and the only buttermilk available here is 98% fat free, I thought it might be lacking fat, so I removed 1tsp of sour cream and added 1tsp vegetable oil. It mixed into the sour cream nicely. 

I nearly find it hard to pick a fault with this recipe now, although the tops are a little.. I dont know,like crinkly? It's like they've domed up and then deflated the slightest bit. But, for now I can deal :) I can't wait to get some peer reviews from the rest of the family, but I thought they were moist, fluffy, soft, and most importantly not dense! Which is probably the best result so far, so thank you so much :) 

Fist pump!  I'm so glad!!!

I have experienced shrinking on the sides and sticking with the fromscratch sf recipe. Anyone know why this happens?  I lower the oven to 325 to ensure level baking with bake even strips and a flower nail. Am I underbaking? What gives?!?!  It get s rave reviews but I am not seeing it. Help! Thanks.

Also could it be that I am underfillng the pans?  I take the recommended amount of batter per wilton (for instance an 8" pan takes 3 1/2 cups of batter so for a 2 layer cake I'd use 7 cups of batter total) and divide it between three pans instead of 2 to get thinner layers of cake.   Thoughts on my method?  Thanks!!

AYes it shrinks from the sides about an 1/8 of an inch. Most professional recipes do. You need that lip for buttercream.

Wilton chart is for box mix with predictable results. No scratch cake has the same density or rises the same as another recipe so you need to adjust the amount you put in the pan. I over fill so my cake bakes above the lip, then trim and get exact 2" layers, but not everyone does this. FYI an 8" cake has 1lb 10oz per pan with this recipe, baked at 350 for 45 minutes with bake even strips. A 6" has 1 lb 2 oz. and so on.

If this hasn't made it on here before, I made a white cake for christmas last year from a recipe in Country Living Magazine called Mrs Billetts Wintery White Cake. Perfect first time. It was moist and had beautiful texture. They did a whole white cake tribute in the Dec 2012 issue with several icings and fillings that compliment this particular recipe. Check it out online or google Mrs Billetts Wintery white cake

AI found the best white cake recipe on Martha Stewarts website. It's a white sheet cake recipe that uses 8 egg whites.

Thanks so much FromScratch.  I wonder if my baking my cakes with your recipe at 325 vs. 350 has anything to do with it!! I bake at 325 to ensure level baking, with the bake even strips and a flower nail. 

Not sure if you are willing to share this information as I know you have spent countless hours on this recipe.  But how much batter, by weight, does a 10" and 12" pan take?  I will have to weigh my next batch of batter to see how much each batch makes!

Thanks again for all your help.