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 JohniseC, You can use either all-purpose flour or cake flour.
I also meant to ask if you can use tonic water instead of water? I have used it in other recipes...not sure if it would compromise the texture of the cake. Just wondering if anyone has tried it before?
Hi Melissa & BeBe,
For these doctored cake mix recipes should we always use a brand that does not already have the pudding mix in it like Duncan Hines? It's just that in another recipe I noticed that you added a packet of pudding mix as a separate ingredient.
Thanks Sue
Hi, any news on post #270?
Hi Sue, You can use either the "pudding in the mix" brands, such as Pillsbury or Duncan Hines ( that does not contain pudding) for the White Almond Sour Cream cake, or the other recipes in the Recipe Section. In the White/Yellow Durable cake recipe, a box of pudding is added for more denseness. You would need an extra dense cake if you will be doing a lot of carving. Our preference when making the Durable recipe is to use Duncan Hines cake mix.
Your question regarding post #270......I looked at the post and it was answered, was there a specific question you had about my answer?
Hello. I have made this recipe for the 3 9 inch layer leopard print baby shower cake and doubled the recipe.. Worked great and tasted awesome! :) So today I am making a 1/2 sheet cake (Wilton 12x18 pan size) and need to know if I triple this recipe will that be enough batter for this size pan? I hope to hear back from someone soon... as my pan and oven is all ready for the batter. :) I truly enjoy being a member of this site... Melissa, I am learning SOOO much from you. Thank you!
H Denise, we use the Wilton Chart for cake batter amounts, here is a link . The recipe makes approx. 7 cups of batter so if you triple the recipe you will have plenty. The Wilton charts says 16 cups are needed to bake a 1 layer 12 x 18 pan.
Hi BeBe. Thanks for your reply. I just kind of winged it and did have batter left over. Had to bake it longer than 54 min. but turned out nice and full. :) Happy 4th of July to you and Melissa.
Hi Denise, Great, I'm happy it turned out well. When baking in large pans, we add two or more rose nails to help radiate the heat to the center of the pan and cut down on baking time. Also, when you have a question on batter amounts, go to the home page of the site. Look for Member Resources (just above Melissa's picture) and select the page, Helpful Links. There you will see Wilton's Party chart and well as other info. that may be helpful to you.
Hi Again Bebe. Thanks for your reply. I just now seen it... and yes, I knew to add two rose nails to my cake pan before adding batter. This cake was for a high school graduation and this is the second time I have made this awesome recipe, and let me tell you, it gets rave reviews. Customers absolutely love the taste.. along with my homemade buttercream frosting. Thanks for this awesome recipe. :)
Hi girls!!! Thanks for providing us with such a great school! I have learned so much!!! I have a question...does this recipe work well with using a red velvet cake box mix? Im just curious if it would make the red velvet cake dry. Thanks!!!!
Hi Terri, We have not tried this but I think it would be fine to use a red velvet box mix with the WASC recipe.