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.
Sorry if this has been answered but kind of new to asking questions here. Why is it called the Extended Recipe?
Hi Tenia, because it increases (extends) the recipe to give you more batter.
Would like to know if you adjust this recipe in any way for the newer smaller boxed cake mixes. Some have 16.25 oz. and some even 15 instead of 18.25.
I LOVE this recipe! Everytime I make it, I get good compliments about it!
If anybody is interested here is what I do for a 11x15x2 inch (sheet cake). I spray my pan with Crisco Pan Release, sift a little flour around the edges. Line the bottom of my sheet cake pan with parchment. I make the recipe exactly but make 2 batches of it and use 1 1/2 batch of the recipe. Once I filled my pan I tap it on top of counter to make my batter even and let any air bubbles out. Prepare my convection oven to 325 and bake it for 50 minutes. It comes nice light brown, soft and spongy on top!!! I bake this cake 2 days in advance. Wrap it in plastic food wrap and aluminium foil and place it in flat part of the freezer!
Hope this helps any newbie! :D
Hi Yaneri, thank you for making your post. I'm sure it will be helpful to many members.
BeBe & Melissa! Question. I wonder or have you tried using this recipe but using a Lemon Cake Box Mix? I wonder if it will work out? I'm thinking about not adding the almond extra and adding some lemon zest and perhaps some lemon extract? Hmmm? Wonder if it will work. I'm gonna do one and will let ya know how it turns out. Who knows it may be a hit!!! If so I will share with you!!! :D
Hi Melissa and BeBe, I was just wondering if I could use milk instead of water in the wet ingredients? Would it compromise the recipe? Thank you in advance. Always love all the info you both share!
Hi Gloriaelena, Yes, it will be fine to use milk instead of water.
Hi there! Should this recipe be adjusted to reflect the newer (smaller) sized cake mixes? Betty Crocker mixes are now 15.25oz, I believe.
Hi Mindy, you can bake as the recipe reads, knowing it will not make quite as much. Some members on the site empty several boxes into a container and weight out the 18.25 oz. (weight before newer size). Now it seems that the brands all have different weights. This is a link to Anne Byrne, author of The Cake Doctor,http://www.cakemixdoctor.com/?s=cake+mix+size, she says to whisk in 6 Tablespoons flour. Actually, cake mixes are very forgiving with additions. I have made the recipe both ways with good results.
On the recipe i don't see any oil or butter?
Hi Eunice, This version of the recipe does not have oil or butter. There are other White Almond Sour Cream recipes online that add 2 tablespoons oil. It would be fine to add the oil if you like.