I usually only use cake mixes (and by usually I mean I don't think I have ever made a non-cake mix cake) but while researching for birthday cakes for my daughters, I came across the orginal WASC cake and decided to try it. Now, I should mention, I am VERY stubborn and once I set my mind to something I don't stop until I accomplish that something.
The birthday party is Sunday and I tried a test run of the cake today. It is not going well. I bake a lot, but not cakes. I apparently know nothing about cakes, other than how to make a mix.
The recipe that I followed said that it would make 8-inch rounds, but they are in the oven and are overflowing like crazy. Also, the cooking time in the recipe is way off. I don't know what to do! Help!
Which recipe did you use? How many cake mixes? How many 8in pans did you use?
The 8in round pans take 3 cups of batter per pan. My guess is that you put too much batter in the pans.
The recipe that I followed said that it would make 8-inch rounds, but they are in the oven and are overflowing like crazy. Also, the cooking time in the recipe is way off. I don't know what to do! Help!
Grocery store cake pans are less than 1-1/2" tall because a cake mix only makes between 4-5-1/2 cups of batter.
Decorator cake pans are 2 or 3" deep and require more batter than the above pans. If you're make a layer cake using 2" deep pans you're going to need significantly more batter than can usually be had by making only one cake mix.
The Original WASC cake recipe should make approximately 7 cups of batter which will overflow 1-1/2" cake pans. 
However, 7 cups of batter will perfectly fill two 8" cake pans that are 2" deep. 
Here's an everything you need to know to make, decorate and assemble tiered/stacked/layer cakes super thread:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-605188-.html
The above thread has popular CC recipes for crusting American buttercreams, several types of fondant and doctored cake mix (WASC and other flavor variations) - and so much more!
The so much more is extensive cake baking help with member contributed hints and tips (flower nails instead of heating cores, and using bake even strips and homemade pan grease).
Also included are links with photos to the most common cake support systems with accurate and complete instructions.
Also help on smoothing crusting b/c and so much more.
It's a long read but I hope you'll find it helpful.
Thanks for the help! I posted this while I was still in the midst of baking the cake and in panic-mode...lol. I definitely put too much batter in the pans, and I knew I did once I actually thought about it, but at the time I was slightly confused...lol.
I also sifted the dry ingredients together, which I know a few users had suggested in the WASC cake posts I read before trying, but I think it may have put too much air into the batter. I know in the past when I have sifted cake mixes that have sat too long and have a lot of clumps, it has put too much air in them and they've fluffled up like crazy, so today I'm going to try again, using less batter in the pans and not sifting.
I WILL get this right!
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