Anyone more experienced than I have a sure fire recipe for yellow cake suitable for 16" square X 2" pan? Thank you  

There is no "sure fire" recipe for everyone across the board. There is no substitute for trial and error. I personally have probably baked and tweeked dozens of recipes before deciding on my vanilla cake "husband".

Here's a link for what you're looking for:

http://www.cakecentral.com/forum/t/633981/the-great-scratch-offyellow-cakes

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/moist-yellow-cake-109358

This is my favorite -Toba Garrett's yellow cake.  

I suggest searching for the scratch White almond sour cream cake.  You can usually find a variation using whole eggs that will provide a yellow cake.  You can change up the extract to take out the almond if you only want vanilla, etc.

This is the only one I use its by Marsha Winbkecker you can also use it as a base for other cake simply by changing pudding mix 

http://www.winbeckler.com/winbecklers-french-vanilla-sour-cream-cake/