Has Anyone Found A Fix For The Wasc Recipe?

Baking By tootiefruity Updated 29 Mar 2018 , 1:22am by johnson6ofus

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tootiefruity Posted 30 Nov 2016 , 1:37am
post #1 of 25

Below is the recipe given to me by my instructor. Don't know where she got it, but I understand in asking her recently about it, that she had made some changes in the original recipe she had. I also indicated beside several ingredients, the brands I use. I am wondering if anyone has found a fix for this recipe or the original that eliminates the box mixes that Duncan Hines has changed which have destroyed this recipe. I've not had a successful cake to bake since they changed the recipe and weight of their product. Everybody likes my cakes and I hate to change it if someone has any ideas to help me with this. Thanks to all...Fran

White Almond Sour Cream Cake (WASC)

Ingredients

2 boxes white cake mix (I use Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix W/pudding) Me: Duncan Hines
2 cups all-purpose flour (can use cake flour) Me: Pillsbury AP flour
2 cups granulated sugar   Me: Dixie Crystals sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
8 egg whites (I use 1-1/3 cups Eggbeaters) Me: any brand pasteurized egg whites
2-2/3 cups water
4 tbsp. vegetable oil (I use 4 tbsp. applesauce) Me: applesauce
2 cups (16 oz. carton) sour cream
2 tsp. clear vanilla flavor
2 tsp. almond extract
(Optional – 2 tsp. butter flavor)
(I also add 1 small box of instant pudding/cake mix) Me, too.
Directions
v  Mix all dry ingredients by hand using a whisk in a very large mixing bowl.
v  Add the rest of the ingredients and beat on low speed for 2 minutes.
v  Bake at 325° (I bake at 335°)
***One recipe makes: 1-14” round + 1-6” round
or 1-16” round
or 1-12” round +1-10” round
or 1-12x18” sheet cake
or 1-12” round + 1-8” round +1-6”
Full recipe makes six 7-3/4” ovals – Mame’s note
Half a recipe makes: 2-8” rounds
Or 2-6” rounds + 6 cupcakes



24 replies
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2txmedics Posted 30 Nov 2016 , 11:52am
post #2 of 25

Watching this post. Didnt  know  the bix changed its ingredients 

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Apti Posted 1 Dec 2016 , 7:36pm
post #3 of 25

I'm with you, @tootifruity  --  the white sour cream isn't the same now....

I used a similar version with the Duncan Hines mix as my base for about 5 years with fabulous results (recipe below) from the Cake Mix Doctor book written in 1996 when DH mixes were 18.25 ounces.  I then tweaked it when the mixes went to 16.5 oz., but then DH changed it again and whatever they did, wrecked it.  

I used the recipe for a beginning cake decorating class at an adult school and was appalled to find my trusty recipe was dry as dust!  The only way I saved it was to use lots of simple syrup.   I do not yet have a replacement recipe.   AAAAACK!!!!!

Here's the OLD RECIPE THAT USED TO WORK AND DOESN'T NOW WITHOUT USING SIMPLE SYRUP:

1 box Duncan Hines white cake mix (16.5 oz.) (use the powdered mix only―do not follow instructions on the box)

1/2 cup flour, sifted

1/8 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure almond extract or use vanilla, lemon, etc.



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tootiefruity Posted 1 Dec 2016 , 11:36pm
post #4 of 25

Hi Apti...Sorry to hear you are having the same problem. It's driving me crazy. However, I have been trying different recipes that are suppose to be scratch box mixes. I may have found one that will work, but I'm still trying to find the right baking temperature in my new convection oven. I made another change in the recipe (WASC), because I had a brainstorm when I first started with the recipe, thinking why am I using instant pudding when I'm baking the cake. Why not cook & serve, so I changed to C&S. Seemed to work just fine through the 16.5 oz. mixes. However, with this scratch mix, even measured out to the original 18.25 oz. size, it was really runny. Baked up like a pound cake, but was like rubber when cooled. So, I ran out and picked up some instant pudding. It thickened it up just about like the old recipe. However, at 335, it browned, shrunk in from the bottom up, and was not done from the bottom  about a 1/4" up on the shorter layer, and seemed the bottom was closer to done on the taller layer, but about an 1/8" not done. Also, the original recipe was very moist and large crumbed. Never really had to add any simple syrup. Today's baking seems a little closer by making the change in the pudding, but I think I'm going to have to take out the parchment all-together, and continue with the flower nails and baking strips. I want to try just making up a scratch and all it's ingredients to see how it bakes up, and if it seems sturdy enough for a wedding cake.

Best of luck to you. If I find something that works and is close to what I was making, I'll definitely post it. Thanks for your response...Fran

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Apti Posted 2 Dec 2016 , 2:06am
post #5 of 25

Good luck on your experiments, Fran. 

I didn't discover that DH had changed AGAIN until I made a some cupcakes a week before I was to make a wedding cake and a week before my first Beginning Cake Decorating class at a local adult school.

No worries, I thought--I've got the perfect recipe for newbies; my trusty, reliable, consistent, tasty, wonderful DH Sour Cream Basic Cake.  Ooops......  I had to throw away 48 cupcakes and thought it was a glitch.  Then I made 4 layers for demonstration and tasting in the first night of the class (24 students hanging on my every word and waiting to taste both the "fabulous cake and buttercream" prepared by their teacher.    Yikes!    I tasted some shavings and thought, "It WASN"T a glitch!  DH has changed again!"    It was too late to do more cake layers, so I figured I'd just cover it with my trusty, reliable, consistent, tasty, wonderful buttercream. 

Oooops.... I had exhausted my long-time frozen supply of Sweetex with trans-fats and switched to my new supply of Sweetex-Z without transfats.  My frosting was grainy and nothing like what it used to be in the good old days of trans-fats.  

Both my cake layers AND my buttercream were definitely NOT what they 'used to be'...<sad emoji>     So I pretended like all was well, the class had no idea that there was a difference and I told them to use simple syrup as the secret ingredient to success.

That weekend I had my first wedding cake and struggled through with reasonable success, but man, I need to find another white recipe and decent buttercream with the new, zero trans-fats stuff.  

Gives me a giant headache.....

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tootiefruity Posted 2 Dec 2016 , 2:56am
post #6 of 25

Hello Christina...I see that you are out on the west coast. I am on the east coast. I know that around here you can still get shortening with a small amount of trans fat in it. You probably have a Walmart. They have their brand of shortening and one in the blue can starts with meat fats combined with vegetable solids. We also have a store around here called Ingles. They have Laura Ann, I think is the brand, that also has some trans fat in a small amount. If you have any stores around that aren't one of the big names, you may find their brand useful. We have Food Lion, Harris Teeter, and Lowes Foods as the big names. I get high ratio shortening from my instructor and mix it with the Walmart or Ingles brands. If you check out Krazy Kool Cakes online, you can get 2 recipes for buttercream, one is all shortening, the other is butter and shortening, and they both use milk. I had not used milk with the Wilton buttercream, but these recipes come out real smooth. I've used them on a couple of cakes.  Have a great evening!

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Apti Posted 2 Dec 2016 , 4:03am
post #7 of 25

In California they threw out trans-fats in 2011 and 2012.  I have a dedicated [hobby] manual defrost cake freezer in which I stored my original 2012 Sweetex that had trans-fats.  Since I hobby bake, it took until early 2016 before I completely exhausted my 50 lb. supply.  The new Sweetex Z, while better than non-trans-fat Crisco, is still a booger to work with.

I'll try adding milk or heavy cream and see how that works in my recipe trials.   Thanks!

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remnant3333 Posted 2 Dec 2016 , 5:38pm
post #8 of 25

Boy, what a pain that the cake manufacturers and sweetex corporations are screwing up all of you cake bakers out there!! The  bad thing is that they do not care about the consumers but they only care about using cheaper tasting and cheaper costing ingredients. They do not care about quality any more!! Welcome to America where everything is made in China, Mexico,Vietnam etc. with SLAVE LABOR!!! They don't pay as much in wages and they still don't make enough so they change to cheaper crap.

I once saw a news special tv program where they caught people in China who were making some kind of pastry and they went out back and got cardboard off the ground, shredded it up and mixed it in with their pastry. So, there is no telling what is really in those box mixes anymore!!! You can thank the past and current gov't politicians who want all stuff to be made overseas!! Good luck with finding a new WASC recipe. By the time someone does they will change the cake boxes again to something else which is cheaper ingredients!! It is so sad that the corporations just do not care anymore!!!

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tootiefruity Posted 2 Dec 2016 , 7:21pm
post #9 of 25

Well said, remnant3333. They care, but only about lining their own pockets. The sad thing for them is, LOL, they don't understand that by destroying their mixes like they have, their business is going to take a big hit. When you've been using a product for 3 - 4 years successfully in a recipe, without any issues, and you suddenly start having a variety of things go wrong with that recipe, which developed over a number of months, you're forced to start looking for other ways to make it happen.  Unfortunately for me, I had not noticed that the weight of the boxes had changed. I was keeping up with the expiration dates and just overlooked the fact that the boxes were getting hard to hold on to because their wasn't anything in them. My frustration started back in October 2015, which I assume is when the change occurred.  I've tried about 10 different ways, with a variety of scratch cake mixes, to just get the cake like what I was getting with the box mixes before they screwed them up. Guess it's needless to say, but, there's been a lot of money go in the trash. I baked up a scratch cake recipe today. It was a thick batter which, of course, requires you to spoon and smooth it out in the pan. Not the desired method. I set the timer for 40 mins., started it at 300 degrees F in a convention oven, for 40 mins. I increased the temp to 325F at 30 mins. to cook the last 10 mins. It browned up nice and flat. I used Wilton pan spray, flower nails and baking strips. The testing probe came out with absolutely nothing on it and the cake had separated from the sides. The separation had never been a problem for me with the WASC recipe. It's in the process of cooling. 15 mins in pan, then removed it. I will let it cool completely to see how it is, and if pleased with it, will try the sour cream and pudding additions. Thanks for your comment...Fran

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kakeladi Posted 2 Dec 2016 , 10:08pm
post #10 of 25

The recipe you are using in NOT the *ORIGINAL*!  Here is a link to the original: http://www.cakecentral.com/recipe/7445/the-original-wasc-cake-recipe

I know there are hundreds of replies, but about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through them I have posted comments about the new sizing noting that I have found that NO CHANGE is necessary when using the new sized boxes of Betty Crocker mix.  That is what I usually used and can speak only to that brand.  In the past (before the downsized boxes) I very occasionally used DH - don't remember ever having a problem with any brand I tried.

Using the recipe that calls for *2* boxes of mix is NOT the *original* recipe.   That recipe was developed based on my original recipe by a gal in Cleveland, OH for her wedding cake business.  It's what she wanted but NOT THE *ORIGINAL* one.  

I bet if you try using Betty Crocker brand and the *original* recipe you will have good luck.   It does double (and even quadruple) well.  I used it in my shop in IN for several years. 



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tootiefruity Posted 3 Dec 2016 , 1:43am
post #11 of 25

Hi Kakeladi...I have seen your recipe, but have one question. Why is the first ingredient list "The  Original WASC cake recipe"? It's a bit confusing if the name of the recipe in whole is "The Original WASC Cake Recipe". It makes it sound like there's another recipe that goes along with it. That's why I haven't tried it, but I will pick up a box of Betty Crocker mix tomorrow and try it with what I had been using. I really like that recipe. If it doesn't work, or better yet, reacts in the same way the DH did, something is definitely wrong somewhere.

Please let me know if there is another recipe that goes along with the one you sent me to, that I've seen, but skipped over because of the ingredient confusion.

Thanks for the info...Fran

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Apti Posted 3 Dec 2016 , 2:48am
post #12 of 25

@kakeladi - Thanks for the info.  I will also try it this weekend using Betty Crocker.


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johnson6ofus Posted 3 Dec 2016 , 3:43am
post #13 of 25

I wonder if the experiment is to add flour and sugar like the cake ix "extenders". When they first reduced the size, they left the same ingredients (I believe). When they reduced it AGAIN, I think they added more leavening so the cake mix still "filled the pan" when baked.  Then when we doctor and add more pudding, it is just too heavy to rise properly and "stay inflated" without the structure of the added flour.


That is my combined theory, and I am sticking to it....lol. I plan to experiment some and see if I too, can escape the sticky mess the new cake mixes (even weighted out and adjusted by weight) now create.

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Apti Posted 3 Dec 2016 , 5:22am
post #14 of 25

We can all hold hands and sing Kumbaya as we try new recipes.  <<<hugs>>>

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MBalaska Posted 3 Dec 2016 , 9:53am
post #15 of 25

It's impossible to even count and keep track of all the recipes that I've experimented on over the years... ahem....decades.  All part of the fun right?  However people need to remember that box cake mixes have expiration dates.

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tootiefruity Posted 3 Dec 2016 , 1:38pm
post #16 of 25

Hi MBalaska...Thanks for your comment. I only started keeping track of what I was doing about 8-10 attempts ago. Mainly because my husband is like, "have you been writing down what you're doing, blah, blah, blah"? If you'd seen any of my postings about this issue, you would know that it wasn't the weight of the boxes that had my attention. I've been having issues with apparently too much air in the mix. However, it may the fact that I actually started timing the mixing process. But I really didn't start the actual timing until sometime in 2016 because I thought maybe I wasn't mixing long enough or mixing to long. It didn't make much since because I hadn't really changed how I was making up the batter. I do not know when they changed the weight, but I do know the cake i found back in October 2015, which was the first one I could find that I had issues with, was before the January 1post I saw of someone complaining about the change in weight affecting their work. I had been looking for reasons why I was having the problems that started probably before October '15, and discovered the weight change. I noticed that the boxes were becoming harder to hold on to when picked up, but was mainly concerned with the expiration dates, and never considered that they had changed the weight. Of course, setting off a light bulb moment, and I've been looking fixes and testing my little heart out.  I baked up a straight up cake recipe yesterday, which is edible and closer to the larger crumb of the WASC recipe. Now I'm going to try adding some things, one at a time to see if I can use this recipe for the WASC recipe. Checking out the Better Crocker mix may be the next step after that. Thanks for your comment...Fran

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tootiefruity Posted 3 Dec 2016 , 1:46pm
post #17 of 25

Hi johnson6ofus...I have come to the conclusion that if they added a bunch of stuff in the mix to make it look fuller, it's only going to increase the problems by adding mix from another box to make it the right weight. Ugh!!! I'm willing to try the Better Crocker mix as suggested by kakeladi, but refuse to try the Duncan Hines mixes again, with all the problems I've had. Thanks for your comment...Fran

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MamaGeese Posted 7 Feb 2017 , 12:34am
post #18 of 25

Hi I'm new on the site. Was desperate to figure why all the cake mixes were not only smaller, but not worth eating. Full of holes, way over leavened. I searched, and searched some more for an answer...I wrote nasty letters and emails to the companies which got me nowhere. Then in the store one day I noticed the small little 9 oz boxes of Jiffy yellow or white cake mix. They've been around forever, but never tried them. Well, I must say using the Jiffy white mix was the closest to the way the WASC used to turn out. Just use 2 (9oz. Each) boxes and proceed with the recipe. The texture was good, crumb tight, with a very natural taste. You can order it by the case on Amazon. It's very cheap too. So far I'm happy with it..just wanted to share..

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kakeladi Posted 7 Feb 2017 , 8:24pm
post #19 of 25

If y our cakes are full of holes you probably are over mixing them :(  Taste is so different to each person.  Personally I don't care for the taste of Jiffy mixes.

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tootiefruity Posted 7 Feb 2017 , 10:16pm
post #20 of 25

Good afternoon MamaGeese...Welcome to the site. I'm glad to see another baker disgusted with the changes in the cake mixes. As I'm sure you've read my posts, I am well past disgusted. However, I have come up with a scratch recipe that I am pretty happy with. Although, in finding the right recipe, it had to bake up just like the WASC recipe had been baking before the last change from 16.5 to 15.25 oz. Personally, I think that everyone I've baked a cake for seems to like the larger crumb and moistness of my cakes. That is, prior to the problems I was having. In the last week or so, I have put together a cake mix recipe that is suppose to be a box mix replacement, but have yet to use it. It incorporates powdered milk. I think it will be good with the pudding mix added.

The recipe I created,plus all the added ingredients I had used from the WASC recipe I had, baked up just as I wanted it to. With that in mind, I allowed them to cool completely, triple wrapped in plastic, put in a Ziploc bag, and placed in the freezer. When I took them out and began to trim the tops off, they appeared to be just as the WASC cakes I had made in the past. Moist and not like a pound cake. WOOHOO!!! Success!!! I'll share the recipe in another post later. Best of luck!

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johnson6ofus Posted 8 Feb 2017 , 7:09pm
post #21 of 25

tootiefruity may be the master! Can't wait to try it. Hate when any company messes with "a good thing" saying it is "improved" but all it usually improved is their bottom line (cheaper/less ingredients).

With pros, semi-pros and hobby bakers---- many using doctored mixes, it seems like they would want to make this group happy with their product and buy it often?

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claryd Posted 10 Feb 2017 , 7:17am
post #22 of 25

I still consider myself a novice but I've been making cakes for a little over 2 years (see? Novice!). I can speak for Betty Crocker. Never any problems and I use Kakeladi's recipe. Solid every time! (The results, that is.)

In regards to the question of her recipe's first ingredient, there's no other recipe that goes in with the ingredients listed. That first bullet was a typo. HTH

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ittybittybakery Posted 27 Mar 2018 , 3:09pm
post #23 of 25

wondering if you ever came up with a recipe that worked as well as the original 18 or even 16oz versions of the WASC recipe?  The bubbles and holes are killing me!  Would love to know where all of your experiments landed you.



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MamaGeese Posted 27 Mar 2018 , 7:47pm
post #24 of 25

Nope!! However I did see boxes of cake mix called Betty Crocker Original scratch cake mix . The boxes were about 19oz. They got good reviews . I bought 2 boxes, but haven't had a chance to try them. Look on Amazon for more variety of flavors, but they don't have a white mix which is disappointing ....there are tons of professional cake mixes available, but you have to buy in bulk and some got bad reviews.  Let me tell ya, I've contacted every consumer brand company out there and called them out on their trickery. Has made me furious! I make mostly all scratch cakes anyway, but sometimes you need to whip up a quick cake and the WASC using white mix was divine..I'll keep you posted

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johnson6ofus Posted 29 Mar 2018 , 1:22am
post #25 of 25

I have been slightly happier by adding 2 tablespoons all purpose flour and 2 tablespoons sugar , plus some extra mix to equal the 18.25 oz. 

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