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WASC Cake (Cake Mix)

Last Updated On: November 11, 2023 | Published: April 15, 2011 by Melissa Diamond | 486 Comments
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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!

WASC Cake, sliced. Frosted with pink buttercream.

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!

  1. Preheat: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. 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).
  3. Dry ingredients: In the bowl of your mixer, combine dry ingredients and whisk at least 30 seconds to blend.
  4. Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, combine sour cream, water, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
  5. 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.
  6. 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!

White Almond Sour Cream Cake- A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe

Recipe FAQs

We love almond desserts and so for us, the hint of almond in this cake recipe is delicious.

However, if you are not a fan of almond, no problem! Simply leave the almond flavoring out and you will have a fantastic White Sour Cream Cake recipe to serve your friends and family. You can substitute extra vanilla if you'd like!

Yes we do! Don't miss our White Almond Sour Cream Cake from Scratch!

We discovered this popular White Almond Sour Cream Cake from cake mix years ago on CakeCentral.com. If you hop over to their site, I'm sure it is still there, along with years worth of variations and conversations about it ;0)!

Some variations call for vegetable oil in addition to the sour cream, others don't.

We have changed our White Almond Sour Cream Recipe over the years to include canola oil just for a bit more moisture (although the additional fat from the sour cream in the recipe does a good job off this also!)

We love sour cream in both cake mix recipes and cake recipes from scratch! It is an ingredient that adds richness and softens the texture of the cake.

It also makes it slightly more dense. In the case of cake mix recipes, it gives the cake a from-scratch texture.

We've made many favorite cakes that contain sour cream. A few favorites are our easy Marble Cake from Cake Mix, easy Chocolate Mousse Cake, scratch Pineapple Pound Cake, and scratch Chocolate Sour Cream Cake!

No, this popular WASC cake is not a true white cake. Although it starts with a box of white cake mix, it uses whole eggs. The egg yolks add richness but also a yellow shade. I consider this recipe to be a vanilla cake. Still delicious! We hope that you enjoy it! (As a side note, our scratch White Velvet Cake is our lightest "white" cake.)

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!

White Almond Sour Cream Cake- A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe

WASC Cake (White Almond Sour Cream)

BY Melissa and Bebe
This delicious White Almond Sour Cream Cake is a great, flavorful go-to doctored cake mix recipe. Many of our doctored cake mix cakes are based on this popular recipe!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Course: Cakes and Cupcakes
Servings: 15 servings
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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.

Notes

Freezing: These WASC cake layers can be made ahead and frozen. When freezing, we like to wrap each layer individually with plastic wrap and then foil. (You can place each layer on a foil-wrapped cake cardboard before wrapping for extra stability).
Freeze up to 3 months. To thaw, place on the kitchen counter, still wrapped for 30-45 minutes. Then unwrap and continue thawing to desired amount. Some bakers prefer to decorate their cakes while still partially frozen, as they are less fragile and easier to handle.
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486 Comments

  1. I am looking for the baking time and it just says, "...bake at 325 degrees minutes..." What is the baking time for 2 8"x 2" and/or 2 6"x 2" rounds?

    Thanks!

    Reply

  3. Hi Ladies!

    Is there a particular brand of cake mix that you use that works best for this recipe? I need to make a yellow cake.

    Reply

  4. Hi Anny, we usually use Pillsbury. There are members on the site that love Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker and those work fine with the recipe also, it is personal preference.

    Reply

  5. Hello BeBe and Melissa, Are you using the new size cake mixes with the same recipe stated above, or have you altered it in any way? I've read some bakers are using additional mix to compensate for the 3 ounces. Wanted to know what you are doing. Thank you!

    Reply

  6. Hi Melissa, the cake mix boxes don't come like they used to, 18.5 ounces. They are now 16.5 ounces. Is the 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, etc., the correct amounts for these cake mixes? Thank you.

    Reply

  8. I noted the comment Bebe said regarding using 4 egg whites and adding an additional 1/4 c liquid vs using 3 whole eggs for this recipe.

    Does using egg whites/extra liquid change the texture or density of the cake? Or do whole eggs provide more stability to the cake?

    Just curious.

    Reply

  9. Hi Michaela, my answer to hdureah on Jan. 17 about the egg whites was because she wanted a white cake. The cake will still have density, but I personally prefer the cake using whole eggs. The egg white version is good though I think when made with egg whites it is a bit more dry.

    Reply

  11. Hello dear ladies, can you tell me how many times I can do this recipe if I'm trying to do a 11 by 15 inch cake pan (thomas the train) and also for a 10 inch round cake, 4 inch tall? Please, help me I need to do this for this 3/16/13.
    Thank you for your precious time in teaching us all your secrets.

    Reply

  12. Hi Isabel, you would need to double the recipe for the 11 x 15 and also the 10" cake.

    The recipe makes approx. 8 1/2 cups batter. Click on this link to see the Wilton chart I used,
    This and other helpful charts are found in the Helpful Links section that you will choose under Member Resources on the homepage
    Good Luck with Thomas the Train

    Reply