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 Be Be,
Can I have that recipe as well as I am waiting for that !!
Do you have my email address ?
Do you wants me to send you?
Thanks
Vaishali
Help! I made this cake tonight and it came out very crumbly... the cakes not falling apart but the top where I cut to level it is all Crumbs... Is this normal? I have it in the freezer right now will it still work to decorate?
Hi Mrstucker, No, it shouldn't be all crumbs, did you level before the layers had cool a bit? Do you think you might have left out the eggs or sour cream? Taste the part you leveled off to see what you think. If it taste fine, I would try to decorate. Let me know how it goes.
I added the eggs and sour cream and it taste great... I waited for about 40 mins before I leveled it... getting the order of when to level, when to freeze, when to remove from pan etc is the part I'm lost at! I questioned if I should have frozen the cake then leveled it... also I have a hard time removing a large cake 12 x 18 or larger from pan... I want to let it cool so it comes out easier but I know I need to wrap the cake warm to freeze it... Other than watching a lot of videos which is hard for me bc I have very limited internet data is there a good place to learn the basic "order" THANKS!
Hi Mrstucker! I think that your cake will be fine. What did you level with? If you don't have a cake leveler, a long serrated knife will do the trick. -- It doesn't matter if you level the cake after it has cooled off a bit or, if you freeze your cakes, you can level when it's partially frozen. So, whatever you'd prefer... if the cake is fragile, you may rather level when the cake is partially frozen.
When I remove a sheet cake from a larger pan, I just take a cake board the same size or larger than the pan and place it on top of the cake and pan, and then do a big flip over all at once. The cake will stay warm to the touch for a good while...we usually flip them out of the pan probably within 10-15 minutes of taking out of the oven.
Here is a link to our Cake Decorating FAQs in the "Member Resources" section which is in the right side bar. I think the "Member Resources" section blends in a little so you may have missed it! I go through the whole rundown of the order that we do things in the first question. Just know that you do not have to do things just as I do...through experimenting, you may switch things up a bit and that's fine! ;0) -- Let us know if you have any more questions!
I have a couple of questions about this cake. It's my absolute favorite and I use it all of the time but usually with buttercream. Is this cake dense enough as an 11 x 15 sheet cake (doubled recipe) to cover with fondant?
Also, I have to fill it with raspberry and carve into a number 2 shape. I want to make sure that my filling doesn't bulge and I do plan to let it settle, but should I cut the shape first then fill so that I can use a buttercream dam or should I just fill then carve after it settles?
Thank you very much!
Hi Melissa--No problem to cover this cake with fondant. We do all the time. --
Because of the filling, I would carve the "2" shapes first and then pipe the dam and fill with raspberry filling on the bottom layer, and slide on the top layer. You may find it easier (considering the awkward shape) to transfer the top cake layer onto the bottom if you chill it it the freezer first until at least partially frozen. Once stacked, you can wrap with plastic wrap and place a cake board on top, and your weight of choice...a thin book or thick magazine. Just something that will evenly distribute a light pressure over the cake for a few hours or overnight. Hope this helps!
Thank you very much! It's such a blessing that we can ask you guys questions and you share your wisdom with us. :)
You are very welcome, good luck with the cake!
Hi Melissa. I use this recipe alot. Everyone loves it.
I just realized that the cake mixes are now smaller than the original recipe for WASC which was based on an 18oz. box. I use the Duncan Hines which is now 16.5oz ( Betty Crocker is 15.5). Do any adjustments need to be made. I read on another forum that people are adding dry mix to make a total of 18 oz.
Thanks
Hello ladies,
I would like to make a cake and put some frozen strawberries (w/syrup) as a filling to make a straweberry shortcake. Would this sour creme cake be the best recipe to do it in? Or should I use a pound cake recipe? I do know I must make a dam so that the filling doesn't come out. What would be the best frosting to use other than whipped? Thanks in advance!
Hi Terri, Either recipe would be fine to use. Frozen strawberries become very soft when thawed so be careful that the filling is not so wet that it will make the cake soggy. I would leave about an inch around the perimeter of the cake to help prevent the filling from coming out, this in addition to a stiff dam made with the Fluffy buttercream, or all butter buttercream, or a crusting cream cheese recipe would be good. Here is a link to a crusting cream cheese recipe that was posted on the Forum by Holly, https://www.mycakeschool.com/message-boards/recipes/need-a-crusting-cream-cheese-icing-recipe I think it is very good.