A question about Dorie Greenspan's "Perfect Party Cake"

[oli]

In Baking, by Dorie, she has a recipe for "Perfect Party Cake" where she mentions in her ingredient list, that she prefers buttermilk with the lemon.

What does that mean, I am not quite clear?

As written in the book - 11/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)

[Fernwood]

The cake is flavored with lemon zest and extract, plus lemon juice in the buttercream. I think the implication is that she likes the tang of buttermilk with the lemon flavor of the cake but that whole milk will work, if that's what you have. Or you might choose to substitute other flavoring for the lemon and prefer the blander milk.

Edited to clarify the various lemon elements.

Edited June 14, 2013 by Fernwood (log)

[oli]

Thanks for the clarification

[oli]

I baked Dorie Greenspan's cake, called the Perfect Party Cake, but it didn't rise very much. I am wondering if my problem is that I used powdered milk instead of the real deal? My wife thinks I over mixed it, but I did mixed it exactly the amount of time the recipe called for. In fact i used a timer. The other thing my wife said is that maybe I used too much butter when I buttered the pans. I just rubbed the sides on bottom with a stick of butter just enough to coat it.

Edited June 22, 2013 by oli (log)

[oli]

This was with fresh baking powder

[judiu]

Doesn't the buttermilk add a certain amount of acidity to the batter? Did you compensate for this somehow, or should you have?