Preheat your oven to 335ºF (170ºC) and prepare two 8"x2" cake pans with cake goop or your preferred pan release. Bring your buttermilk, egg whites, and butter to room temperature (a little warm is even better) so that your ingredients mix together smoothly and your cake bakes up properly. If you don't have buttermilk, check out my buttermilk substitutes blog post for alternatives. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
Divide your buttermilk in half. Combine ½ of the buttermilk with the oil and set aside.
Combine the other ½ of the buttermilk, egg whites, and vanilla extract together, whisk to break up the eggs, and set aside.
Add the softened butter to the dry ingredients and mix on low until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
Add in your buttermilk/oil mixture and let it mix until the dry ingredients are moistened, then bump the speed up to medium (setting 4 on my KitchenAid, speed 2 on my Bosch) and let it mix for 2 full minutes to develop the cake's structure. If you don't let your cake mix on this step your cake may not rise properly. The batter should look white and fluffy and not broken or curdled.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and then reduce the speed to low. Add in your egg white mixture in three batches, letting the batter mix for 15 seconds between additions. Mix until everything is combined. The finished cake batter should look smooth and not curdled.
Divide your cake batter evenly into two bowls. I like to weigh my cake pans so that I know each layer is even.
Add 1 Tablespoon of red food coloring to the first bowl and stir until fully mixed. I like the Super Red gel food color by Americolor.
Add 1 Tablespoon of electric blue food coloring to the second bowl and stir until fully mixed.
Pour each cake batter into the cake pans.
Bake the layers for 30-35 minutes or until the center bounces back when you lightly touch it.
Once your layer is baked, remove it from the oven and immediately tap it on the countertop to release excess air. This helps prevent shrinking as the cake cools.
Let the cake cool for 10-15 minutes in the pan and then flip the cake out onto a wire rack.
Once your cake has cooled down a little, carefully trim off the dome of your cake layer so it's nice and flat on top.
Wrap your warm cake in plastic wrap and place it into the freezer until it's time to assemble the red white and blue ice cream cake. PRO TIP – Freezing your cake while it's still warm locks in the moisture, you can then freeze your cake for a few days without it drying out.