I have an order for a strawberry cake covered in fondant. In the past I've used a doctored box cake mix for this, but I always find that the cake isn't sturdy enough and the weight of the fondant squishes down the cake a little and causes the fondant to sag and buckle around the bottom edges of the cake. Does anyone know if I can use the WASC recipe and substitute strawberry box mix and flavor for the vanilla? Or does anyone have a recipe for strawberry cake that is sturdy enough to hold up well with fondant? Thanks.

I would use the WASC, substitute the almond for strawberry extract and use a jar of strawberry preserves in it. Not sure if that recipe calls for jello or not but I always add a box of instant pudding in vanilla and it makes it very sturdy. You can also add frozen strawberrys that have been thawed but you have to make sure to drain them well.

The *original* WASC cake recipe by kakeladi
1 box cake mix (I prefere Betty Crocker) *see notes at end
1 cup flour
1 cup granulated sugar
generous dash of salt

1 cup sour cream
1 cup water *
3 whole eggs
1 tablespoon flavoring*
In bowl mix together dry ingredients. It's helpful if you use a wire wisk, but optional. In mixer bowl place next 3 ingredients. Add about 1/2 of the dry ingredients and blend together, then add the rest of the dry ingredients & blend. Mix for 2 minutes.
Pour into prepared pans * and bake as usual.

*NOTES: *any cake flavor* can be used. Match the flavoring to the cake flavor such use lemon/almond mix for lemon cake; strawberry alone or w/almond for a strawberry cake etc, etc. For most flavors you can use a mixture of vanilla, butter, and almond which is what I do most of the time.
You can use milk or cream for the liquid.
This recipe is based on mixing in a kitchenaid mixer. I use position #1 to stir it, then #4 to mix the batter.
Most of the time I forget to add the salt
On rare occasions I have used other brands of mix.
This makes the amount of batter as if you used 1 1/2 mixes and is perfect for a 10" sq OR 9x13 OR one 8" & two 6" round; Or a 12" round; and other combinations of pans.
I prefere to bake at 300 degrees for about 20-30 minutes (depending on size of cake) then turn oven up to 325 for about an equal time. If cake has pulled away from sides it is overbaked After cooling, the top might be a bit sticky.
The flavoring I most often use is this mixture:
1 part vanilla extract
1/2 part butter flavoring
1/4 part almond flavoring

A "Part" is any measure be it teaspoon; tablespoon; cup or quart Since I made many wedding cakes I usually mixed it up by the cup about once a month

Thanks so much for your replies. You guys are awesome!

Here's the expanded flavors of the WASC (on the CC website):

http://tinyurl.com/2cu8s4

I've made both strawberry and lemon versions of the WASC cake recipe. To increase the flavor impact, just add extract in the appropriate flavor/s and eliminate the vanilla/almond. (I used McCormick strawberry & lemon extracts from the grocery store.)

HTH

When I've done strawberry WASC, I puree a bag of frozen strawberries, then add the water to come to the 2 2/3 cups needed. Yummy!

Jodie

Hello there, don't know if this helps, but you can try mixing 1 cup of strawberry mousse with wasc cake batter. I didn't try strawberry, but I tried chocolate and it was delicious. I also use the method of wrapping the cake right when it comes out of the oven with press n seal and put in freezer. check the forums, "my moist cake ever" its from cakesdivine. Hope this helps!