Layer Cake Finally

I did it! I made a layer cake, and it didn't suck. In fact, it was pretty good, if I do say so myself. I felt ok enough about it that I brought it to my best friend's house as a gift. Maybe I don't have a black thumb when it comes to baking. There's just one teensy weensy problem: It was supposed to be three layers and it didn't come out tall enough to get three; I did two and put the rest of the curd on top of the cake like a glaze. Thinking about it now, I'm pretty sure I didn't beat the egg whites long enough; if I had, I think the cake would have had more body to it. Oh well. Try, try again!