After reading Shirley O. Corriher’s book, CookWise, to find out what went wrong and how to fix it, I had a renewed sense of joy for baking.
I would use lard, which has more air bubbles. Modern day ‘vegetable shortening’ is not something I trust at all. Too much worry about GMO besides other factors. I would cream the lard and sugar together for a minimum of five minutes to incorporate more air. Use less Baking Powder so the cake would not fall in the oven (I’m at 5466 feet above sea level and you have to adjust leavening.) I would ‘cream first’ (an old method of the order in which you mix ingredients), then add milk and vanilla, then add the flour and other dry ingredients. Dry ingredients needed to be sifted together 2 or three times minimum before being added into the bowl so you don’t get tunnels. Don’t over mix once the flour goes in or too much gluten is created, making the cake tough. Don’t get any yolk in the whites like last time (results in losing more loft. Big error.) Okay, that should about do it!
Original ‘Easy White Cake’ recipe straight from the KitchenAid book. Nothing about my batter was ‘smooth and fluffy’ as indicated in the recipe below.
Below is my modified instruction for cake number 2. Remember I’m using a new piece of faster equipment, and have totally modified the original instructions to something much more comprehensive, but should be a recipe for success.
The order in which all the ingredients go in, the method used, and the speed and equipment to use were all considered. Now we’re cooking with gas! (oh a pun.)
Stay tuned for the results of cake 2!
PattyCakes If I can bake a cake, so can you! 
PattyCakes 