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!

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!

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!

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 mins

Cook Time: 35 minutes mins

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)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (greek yogurt is fine also) (242g)
• ▢ ¼ Cup Canola Oil (54g) (If you prefer butter, substitute one stick (113g) melted butter in place of oil)
• ▢ 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.

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