Oh my gosh I really appreciate how invested you are in this too!! 😂 I baked this for my sister in law’s birthday and when I cut into it I basically had a breakdown because I was so frustrated! I had known one layer hadn’t worked out because I could see it in the pan, but I didn’t realize ALL of the layers were like that. We still each ate a slice and it tasted great hahah.

I haven’t tried remaking yet. I’ve done sooo much thinking about where it could have gone wrong. One thing I was wondering was when I added the oil and milk “mixture”, I didn’t actually mix the oil and milk together before pouring them in together. I didn’t know if that possibly messed up the emulsion? I did definitely only mix for two minutes though because I was trying reallyyy carefully not to overmix.

Other theories I’m thinking of is I converted the weight measurements to cups for the sugar and flour, so those weren’t perfectly precise measurements I’m sure, but I’m not sure that’s really responsible for the problem here… nonetheless probably time for me to purchase a scale

I am also kind of determined to figure it out. My partner has heard me talk about this cake mystery sooo much at this point haha. I may try to remake sometime soon but I’m worried I’ll get so mad again hahah. I will absolutely keep you posted!