WASC Cake (Cake Mix)
This easy White Almond Sour Cream Cake is so popular that it has long been referred to by its abbreviation, WASC, in the cake world.
It is a moist and flavorful layer cake recipe that is versatile enough for cupcakes, and sturdy enough to handle light carving or being covered with fondant.
WASC cake is a great example of a tried and true cake mix recipe that would please any crowd. Keep it in mind as a birthday cake, bridal shower cake, baby shower cake, and more!
Table of Contents
Why we Love WASC Cake
- It goes with just about any filling and frosting that you can think of, and you can easily change it up with add-ins and extracts to make it your own or create new variations.
- Super easy to make
- Has a from-scratch texture thanks to the sour cream in the recipe
- Is a great "base cake recipe" which can easily be transformed with add-ins and extracts.
How to Make WASC Cake
You can find the full, printable cake recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of the steps!
- Preheat: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- Prepare the Cake Pans: Grease and flour two 8x2 round cake pans. (You could also divide the batter between three 8 inch cake layers if you would rather have an additional layer of filling).
- Dry ingredients: In the bowl of your mixer, combine dry ingredients and whisk at least 30 seconds to blend.
- Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, combine sour cream, water, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
- Combine: Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stop after 1 minute to scrape the sides and bottom of bowl then continue to beat for the second minute.
- Pour into Pans and Bake: Pour into prepared cake pans and bake at 325 degrees....check at 35 minutes to see if middle of cake springs back when touched, a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean or with just a few crumbs attached, and the cake will be slightly pulled away from the pan.
Decorating the WASC Cake
The cake in our photo was frosted with our Classic Vanilla Buttercream. We used the beautiful piped buttercream technique which we teach in our free video tutorial for Cascading Rosettes of Buttercream!
There are infinite ways that this cake could be decorated, whether with a smooth finish, textured, or piped. If you are interested in cake decorating, please make sure to check out our collection of hundreds of free Cake Decorating Videos!
Recipe FAQs
More Doctored Cake Mix Recipes
We've made many doctored cake mix recipes over the years! These cakes are super moist, have wonderful flavor, and they taste like they were made from scratch.
Each of these cake mix recipes have been enhanced with additional ingredients to make them unique. Some have sour cream, some have instant pudding, fruit puree, jello, and more. There are so many creative ways to doctor up a simple cake mix!
Some of our favorites are our Easy Lemon Cake from cake mix, Easy Strawberry Cake, German Chocolate Cake from Cake Mix, and Italian Cream Bundt Cake!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
WASC Cake (White Almond Sour Cream)
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix, sifted (15.25 oz) (we use cake mix without pudding in the mix) This recipe will work for yellow cake mix as well.
- 1 cup all purpose flour (121g)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
- generous dash of salt
- 1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (greek yogurt is fine also) (242g)
- ¼ Cup Canola Oil (54g)
- 1 cup water (240g)
- 3 whole eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla (8g)
- ½ teaspoon almond extract (If you don't want almond, you can substitute additional vanilla) (2g)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease and flour two 8x2 round cake pans. (You could also divide the batter between three 8 inch cake layers if you would rather have an additional layer of filling).
- In the bowl of your mixer, combine dry ingredients and whisk at least 30 seconds to blend.
- In another bowl, combine sour cream, water, oil, eggs, & flavorings. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stop after 1 minute to scrape the sides and bottom of bowl then continue to beat for the second minute.
- Pour into prepared pans and bake at 325 degrees....check at 35 minutes to see if middle of cake springs back when touched, a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean or with just a few crumbs attached, and the cake will be slightly pulled away from the pan.
- We bake at 325 degrees to decrease the height of the dome on the cakes.
- Makes about 7 cups of batter.
Hi Maria--No, this one doesn't require oil. ;0) -- Yes, we allow the layers to cool slightly and then wrap them in plastic wrap while still warm, and then wrap them in foil and freeze. We usually don't freeze the cakes for longer than a month but there are many who do. If it is frozen properly, you won't be able to tell any difference in taste!
Thank you Melissa ! I forgot one important question: Can this type of cake be covered with fondant and what kind of buttercream should it have under the fondant? I am making a 2 tier cake - bottom 9" round double layer, the top 6" round double layer. The client wants vanilla in botton and oreo for the 6". Can I add oreo instant pudding to this recipe for the top layer? Thank so much
and I would like to congratulate you and your staff (especially your mom!) for such wonderful work you do together !
Oh please indicate the proper way to thaw this cake.
Thanks again!
Hi Maria--Yes, this can be covered with fondant. Any of the buttercreams would be fine to use under fondant-- we use "Fluffy" and "High Ratio" most often, but the "classic vanilla buttercream", which is an American buttercream would work well too. These are all crusting recipes. Ganache is also very nice to use under fondant. Have you seen our "How to Cover a Cake with Fondant" video in the Gum paste and Fondant section? If not, and if you don't often work with fondant, I think you'll find it helpful!
After the layers are removed from the freezer, you can leave them wrapped and just sit them on your countertop. We usually unwrap once water droplets/condensation begins to form and assemble and fill the layers while they are still partially frozen and frost with a crumb coat. Then, we settle the cake at room temperature for several hours. If the cake isn't as smooth as you'd like after this, you can apply another thin layer of frosting before covering with fondant. *I chill my frosted cake just a few minutes until the frosting is firm before covering with fondant.
As for the oreo cake layers--I've never tried adding pudding- If you would like the crushed oreo look in your cake, I would just crush actual oreos and stir it right into your batter. I hope this helps! If you visit our Cake Decorating Basics section, you'll find info on crumb coating in which I demonstrate what I mentioned above! Let us know if you have more questions, and thanks for your nice words about our site! We appreciate it!
Hi Melissa, thank you very much, you are always so helpful !
Hi Melissa, I researched information on the Sweetex high ratio shortening, and the distributor told me that the "regular" high ratio shortening from Sweetex has trans fat. They make another one without trans fat. Which is the one you recommend or use for your frostings?
I live in Miami, Florida, where the weather is always hot and humid. Which is the most appropriate buttercream recipe for our kind of weather?
Thank you again.
Hi Maria, Melissa and I use the high ratio shortening that has trans fat. You should be fine with this for hot humid Florida.
I just wondered if we want to use egg whites to keep it as white as possible, then should we use 4? This may have been answered but I'm actually wanting to bake it soon!
or does this even work with just egg whites? I'm trying to make it a confetti cake so I wanted it to be as white as possible. Also will this be enough batter for 3 9" pans?
Hi hdureah, yes, use 4 eggs whites and add an additional 1/4 cup water.
You will need to double the recipe to get three 9" layers. It will be more cake batter than you need but you can make a layer to freeze or cupcakes.
I am attempting to make the leopard print cake and do not have any sour cream. Is there any other thick cake mix that will work for it?
Hi Krislyn, I think you could add an additional egg plus 1/4 cup water and it would still be fine. Members have said that they substituted yogurt for the sour cream but I have not tried that.