1-2-3-4 cake by james beard, chef & cooking teacher

-----FOR THREE 9X1/2 INCH DEEP PA-----
   1       tb           butter -- softened
   2       tb           flour
                        -----FOR THE CAKE-----
   3       c            Cake flour -- sifted *Note:1
   4       ts           baking powder -- Double-
                        Acting
     1/2   ts           Salt
   8       oz           butter -- unsalted (2 sticks)
                        -at room temperature
   2       c            Sugar -- granulated
   4       md           Eggs -- at room temperature
   1       c            Milk -- at room temperature
   1 1/2   ts           vanilla extract (or 1 tspn)
                        -----FOR THE FILLING AND TOPPING-----
     3/4   c            Orange juice -- strained
   2       tb           Lemon juice
     3/4   c            Sugar -- granulated
   1       tb           Orange rind -- finely grated

  James Beard's 1-2-3-4 Layer Cake; Uses three 9x1/2 inch deep cake
  pans. Makes: One 3-layered cake; Serves 12 depending on thickness of
  slices.
  *Note:1. If you can't find cake flour, the same amount of All-purpose
  flour can be substituted.
  * Directions *  Preheat the oven to 350dF. Using your hands, butter
  the bottom and sides of all 3 layer-cake pans with softened butter;
  sprinkle flour inside, then shake pans so you get a thin coating on
  the butter. Tip out any excess!
  Now to sift your flour. Lay a large piece of waxed paper on a board,
  put a dry measuring cup in the center, hold a sifter directly over
  it, scoop cake flour from the package into the sifter, and sift the
  flour directly into the cup. When the cup is full, draw the back of a
  knife blade lightly across the top of the cup (don't shake the flour
  down, or it will become dense) and then tip the measured flour into a
  mixing bowl. Repeat with the other 2 cups of flour (you can put any
  flour that spilled onto the waxed paper back in the sifter). When you
  have 3 cups of sifted flour in the bowl, put the baking powder and
  salt in the sifter, holding it over the mixing bowl, and sift it over
  the flour. Then, still using your hands, mix the baking powder and
  salt lightly with the flour.
  Next, put the butter into a second, large mixing bowl. If it is very
  firm (it shouldn't be, if you have left it out of the fridge),
  squeeze it through your fingers until it softens up. When it is soft
  enough to work, form your right hand into a big fork, as it were, and
  cream the butter. This means that you beat it firmly and quickly with
  your hand, beating and aerating it, until it becomes light, creamy
  and fluffy. Then whirl your fingers around like a whisk so the butter
  forms a circle in the bowl.
  Gradually cream the 2 cups of sugar into the butter with the same
  fork-like motion, beating until the mixture is very light and fluffy.
  As the sugar blends in it will change the color of the butter to a
  much lighter color, almost white.
  Now wash and dry your hands thoroughly. Separate the eggs as you
  would for a souffle', letting the whites slip though slightly parted
  fingers into a small bowl and dropping the yokes into a second,
  larger bowl. Beat the yokes for a few minutes with a whisk until they
  are well blended. Then, again with your hand, beat them very
  thoroughly into the butter-sugar mixture. Now beat in the milk
  alternately with the sifted flour -- first one, then the other --
  this time keeping your fingers close together as if your hand were a
  wooden spatula. Beat, beat, beat until the batter is well mixed, then
  add the vanilla and beat that in for 1 or 2 minutes.
  Put the egg whites in your beating bowl and beat them with a large
  whisk or and electric hand beater until they mount first to soft,
  drooping peaks and then to firm, glossy peaks. Do not over beat so
  that they are stiff and dry! Tip the beaten whites onto the cake
  batter and fold them in with your hand. Slightly cup your hand and
  use the side like a spatula to cut down through the whites and batter
  to the bottom of the bowl and then flop them over with your cupped
  hand, rotating the bowl with your other hand as you do so ~- exactly
  the technique used when folding egg whites into a souffle mixture
  with a rubber spatula. Repeat this very lightly and quickly until the
  whites and batter are thoroughly folded and blended. Once you have
  mastered this hand technique you can use it for souffles.
  Again using your hand like a spatula, pour and scrape the batter into
  three prepared pans, dividing it equally between them. Give the
  filled pans a little knock on the countertop to level the batter. Put
  the 3 pans in the center of the oven, or, if you have to use more
  than 1 rack, stagger them on the 2 middle racks of the oven so they
  do not overlap.
  Bake for 25 minutes, then touch the center of each cake lightly with
  your fingertip. If it springs back, it is done. Remove the pans and
  put them on wire cake rakes to cool for a few minutes, then loosen
  the layers by running the flat of a knife blade around the sides of
  the pans, put a rack on top of each pan, and invert so the cake comes
  out onto the rack, top side down. Then reverse the layers so they are
  top side up.
  For filling and icing, SEE: 1-2-3-4 Filling and Icing recipe.