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.
Wonderful!! Thanks so much for posting your thoughts on the recipe.
Hi again...So what I finally ended up doing was switching to cake flour, adding in the 2 TBSPS oil, separating the all the eggs...yolks in with the batter, whites beaten and folded in last...used one cup water...1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 a vanilla beabn scraped....very happy with the result!
Thanks again!!
Hi Jane, It is good to know what worked for you to have a less dense cake when using the WASC recipe. Thanks so much for posting your method.
Hi, the cake mix sizes have been reduced and this sometime causes measurements to be off. What size are you using or does it matter ?
Hi Chaun, We most often use Duncan Hines brand of cake mix and it is 15.25 oz. I usually add 6 tablespoons of all purpose (plain) flour to the cake mix. With the above White Almond Sour Cream cake recipe I do not add additional flour because the recipe has 1 cup of flour . I hope you like the cake.
What is the best filling to use with this cake and also with the chocolate sour cream doctored recipe?
Hi BeBe...almost my "D Day"...pickup on Friday around noon for Saturday wedding...I had used your suggestions for cupcake trial
Jane July 27, 2017 at 6:40 am
Hi again…So what I finally ended up doing was switching to cake flour, adding in the 2 TBSPS oil, separating the all the eggs…yolks in with the batter, whites beaten and folded in last…used one cup water…1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 a vanilla beabn scraped….very happy with the result!
Thanks again!!
Now for the real thing...I'm going to bake the cupcakes and ice them thursday...actually 2 recipes and 2 types of icing...so was going to bake cake layers ahead..wondering how far I can ...also need to cover it(I'm s l o w...) and I guess decorate it thursday...oh..using 6" pans ..3 or 4? with one recipe....Thanks!!
Jane
adding something else...I have pre baked and frozen ...really well wrapped scratch cake layers...they were even moister...could I do taht with this recipe, and bake them today? I guess I need to worry about the friday pickup day...and hope that they keep everything sealed and fridged till saturday..
Thanks
jane
Hi Jane, Yes, you can bake and freeze the cake layers. Almost all of our cake recipes can be frozen. Take the layers out of the freezer on Thursday, the day you plan to decorate. Condensation will form on the top of the wrapped cakes, at that point, unwrap and let the layers continue to thaw. If you are using buttercream to frost your cake, you can crumb coat and decorate with the cake partially frozen. If you are using the Viva paper towel method of smoothing buttercream, you MUST wait until the cake layers are completely back to room temperature or it will take the buttercream forever to crust. If you are using 6 inch cake pans you will have enough for 3 pans, with 2 cups of batter in each pan. I had posted at the end of the recipe that there are 7 cups of batter, however, I made this recipe over the weekend and maybe I miscounted as I was filling the pans, but I thought there was about 7 3/4 cups batter. Anyway you will definitely have enough for 3 layers, possibly 4. If you do use 4 layers you will have a double barrel cake and will need to have a cake cardboard circle between the 4 layers (2 cake layers, dowels, cake circle, 2 more cake layers). We rarely refrigerate our cupcakes because we think refrigeration tends to dry them out. Once you have decorated them, put in a container, we often use bakery boxes. We do not seal the box airtight because in an airtight container, in some cases, the cupcake liners may pull away from the cupcake. If using a plastic container, just don't seal the lid, leave it slightly open. The completed cake could also be left unrefrigerated unless it has a perishable filling. Your time line is good. Your order will be completed on Thursday for a Friday pick-up. Perfect!
Thank you...but I also have to cover the cake...sowill probably take it out to ice on wednesday afternoon/evening so I have time for mishaps :) It will have to be defrosted before I think...before I've done this in the fridge with my scratch cakes...thank you!
Hi Bebe,
If you using 8x3 cake pans...how many will this recipe fill? Goal would be to have a layered 4inch tall cake. Thank you!
Hi Maria, This recipe makes 7 cups of batter. You will need 5 cups for an 8"round 3" deep pan. When cut horizontally into 3 layers, filled and frosted, it should measure 4 inches or nearly 4 inch tall. Do you have experience baking in 3"deep pans? I suggest using a flower nail in the center of the pan and also Wilton baking strips (or wet towel strips) wrapped around the outside of the pan. Here is a link with a batter amount chart and information on baking in 3" pans that I think you will find helpful https://www.craftybaking.com/learn/baked-goods/wedding-cakes/charts/baking-time-and-batter-amounts-three-inch-deep-pans