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WASC Cake (Cake Mix)

Last Updated On: November 11, 2023 | Published: April 15, 2011 by Melissa Diamond | 486 Comments
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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!

WASC Cake, sliced. Frosted with pink buttercream.

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!

  1. Preheat: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
  2. 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).
  3. Dry ingredients: In the bowl of your mixer, combine dry ingredients and whisk at least 30 seconds to blend.
  4. Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, combine sour cream, water, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
  5. 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.
  6. 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!

White Almond Sour Cream Cake- A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe

Recipe FAQs

We love almond desserts and so for us, the hint of almond in this cake recipe is delicious.

However, if you are not a fan of almond, no problem! Simply leave the almond flavoring out and you will have a fantastic White Sour Cream Cake recipe to serve your friends and family. You can substitute extra vanilla if you'd like!

Yes we do! Don't miss our White Almond Sour Cream Cake from Scratch!

We discovered this popular White Almond Sour Cream Cake from cake mix years ago on CakeCentral.com. If you hop over to their site, I'm sure it is still there, along with years worth of variations and conversations about it ;0)!

Some variations call for vegetable oil in addition to the sour cream, others don't.

We have changed our White Almond Sour Cream Recipe over the years to include canola oil just for a bit more moisture (although the additional fat from the sour cream in the recipe does a good job off this also!)

We love sour cream in both cake mix recipes and cake recipes from scratch! It is an ingredient that adds richness and softens the texture of the cake.

It also makes it slightly more dense. In the case of cake mix recipes, it gives the cake a from-scratch texture.

We've made many favorite cakes that contain sour cream. A few favorites are our easy Marble Cake from Cake Mix, easy Chocolate Mousse Cake, scratch Pineapple Pound Cake, and scratch Chocolate Sour Cream Cake!

No, this popular WASC cake is not a true white cake. Although it starts with a box of white cake mix, it uses whole eggs. The egg yolks add richness but also a yellow shade. I consider this recipe to be a vanilla cake. Still delicious! We hope that you enjoy it! (As a side note, our scratch White Velvet Cake is our lightest "white" cake.)

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!

White Almond Sour Cream Cake- A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe

WASC Cake (White Almond Sour Cream)

BY Melissa and Bebe
This delicious White Almond Sour Cream Cake is a great, flavorful go-to doctored cake mix recipe. Many of our doctored cake mix cakes are based on this popular recipe!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Course: Cakes and Cupcakes
Servings: 15 servings
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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.

Notes

Freezing: These WASC cake layers can be made ahead and frozen. When freezing, we like to wrap each layer individually with plastic wrap and then foil. (You can place each layer on a foil-wrapped cake cardboard before wrapping for extra stability).
Freeze up to 3 months. To thaw, place on the kitchen counter, still wrapped for 30-45 minutes. Then unwrap and continue thawing to desired amount. Some bakers prefer to decorate their cakes while still partially frozen, as they are less fragile and easier to handle.
4.46 from 97 votes (95 ratings without comment)

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486 Comments

  3. Can egg whites be used to make this for a wedding cake? Do I whip the egg whites first or how do I substitute using them? Thanks!

    Reply

    1. Hi Anita, this recipe makes approximately 7 cups of batter-- and each cupcake is about 1/4 cup. So, the recipe should give you approximately 28 cupcakes. I would say 15-18 minutes-- peek in at the 15 minute mark and adjust time as needed. (If they spring back when the tops are lightly touched, or an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached, they are done.)

      Reply

    1. Hi Christi, I haven't made a blue velvet cake but the recipes I've seen still incorporate just a bit of cocoa. If I were experimenting, I'd base it on our Red Velvet Cake doctored cake mix recipe linked below (which is similar to this WASC recipe). Just substitute blue coloring ;0) Of course, the cocoa will darken the shade of blue and so you can adjust accordingly if this makes a difference to you. Good luck!

      https://www.mycakeschool.com/velvet-doctored-recipe/

      Reply

  7. hi,

    Prior to this updated recipe, no oil was used in recipe. I noticed the new updates one includes oil. Any reason why the oil was added?

    Reply

  8. 5 stars
    My granddaughter wants a confetti cake and I prefer making your “doctored” cakes. Will this recipe work with confetti or do you have a doctored recipe with instant pudding that would taste better? Thank you!

    Reply

  9. Hi, I’m confused. Why are the same pictures used for both this and the doctored white cake?
    Which applies to which? I’d really like to mimic the texture from the pictures. Thanks

    Reply

  10. 5 stars
    I’ve made this cake many times and it’s always amazing. I’m planning on making again for a bridal shower. I’ve got a toddler now and was thinking of baking the cake the night before and refrigerating it until the next day when I’d frost it. Do you think it would hold up ok?

    Reply