I made WASC cake last night (my house smells like a confectionary delight). It did not come out white white, but with a slight yellow tinge. I am sure that it is because I use regular vanilla and almond extracts (as well as butter).

The problem is that all of the clear vanillas I have found in stores and online are immitation. I am a little leary of immitations when there are real extracts available.

What do you guys do?

I only use real vanilla. I think eggs actually make more of a color difference than the vanilla. If I'm making a white cake I don't use whole eggs, just the whites and then the flavoring doesn't make much difference in the color, I'd describe it as BARELY off-white, not yellow or even ivory.

I was always a firm believer in using only the best all-natural vanilla until I read the results of a taste study done by the American Test Kitchens. They found that essentially equivalent results were achieved with both natural vanilla and imitation vanilla flavoring. In fact, there was a slight preference for the taste of the vanilla flavoring in the test results. Their recommendation, therefore, was to save your money and buy imitation vanilla flavoring.

I use clear vanilla flavoring in my white buttercreams and cakes. I make a 50/50 butter/Crisco buttercream, with clear vanilla, that is a perfect color match to my homemade Marshmallow Fondant.

I use regular vanilla flavoring when I want my buttercream to have an ivory color and in all non-white cake recipes.

I use real vanilla in all my cakes. I only use clear vanilla extract (imitation) when I have to have white-white icing. Did you use the whole eggs? It seems that if you only used the whites it would not come out yellowish.

I use real vanilla!!

Spices Etc. has a natural clear vanilla (and many other natural flavors). I've had lots of success ordering from them!

Unless a super white cake is specified, I would use the real vanilla and whole eggs. To the "naked eye", it's still a white cake.