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 Chan tell, Yes, you can use cake flour
Can you bake this cake in an 8"x3" round pan? I need to make a tall cake (tiered and fondant covered) and was wondering if I can just bake this in one 8x3 round pan and torte my layers instead of baking in several pans.
Hi Nadia, We always bake in 2 inch deep pans. If you bake in a 3" pan I would lower the temperature to 325 degrees and lengthen the baking time. You will probably also need to wrap the pan in a baking strip so the outside of the cake layer will not over bake. It is also good to use a baking nail (rose nail) in the center to help with even baking. Don't overfill the pan, 1/2 full is probably best.
If I made this for a wedding cake (enough for 5 tiers) would it be possible to bake early and freeze so I can assemble at the last minute?
Hi Susan, We don't freeze decorated tiers, I'm not sure if that is what you had in mind. I definitely recommend baking and freezing the individual layers or freezing the tiers filled and crumb coated. Just keep airtight by wrapping in plastic wrap and aluminum foil. Let thaw to add the final frosting or fondant. We have successfully frozen cake layers for 2 months. Hope all goes well.
Hi Bebe, in Nadia's post above referencing 3 inch pans, you suggested that she reduce her oven temp to 325. I think the original oven temp is also 325. So I wasn't sure hitch temp is correct. Thanks so much Bebe! Thanks for all you ladies do for us!
Hello. Thank you for hosting such a great site!
I made your scratch German Chocolate Cake for a birthday present, and everyone loved it :).
This cake and the chocolate sour cream cake look wonderful. I am planning to do mini bundt cakes (12 cavity pan) in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, and I was hoping you could suggest how to doctor the strawberry cake mix, please.
I was also hoping you could share what kind of glaze or glazes would be good to go with each cake flavor. I do not want to use frosting so as not to cover the pretty shape of the bundts.
Thank you!!
Can I make cupcakes with these
Hi Trina, Yes, you can make cupcakes with the White Almond Sour Cream, doctored recipe. If you want a vanilla cupcake, just leave out the almond extract.
Made this for a friend who asked me to bake a cake for her - I am a hobby baker. It was a hit! Very moist & tasted great. I did omit the almond extract, I don't like the flavor. I topped it with the white chocolate buttercream icing. Loved it!
Hi Cyndi, Wonderful! We are so happy you like the recipe! We use this recipe very often for Melissa's demonstration cakes. I usually leave out the almond also, it makes a great vanilla cake. Thanks so much for posting your thoughts on this cake.
What size pans for a round cake? Do you grease and flour or just grease? Thank you!