This is the 2nd time I've made this recipe. 1st time was cupcakes and they were fine. This time, I baked 2 8" rounds with bake even strips, 325 degrees for 40 minutes. The middle never really rose properly. I'm wondering if I should have baked longer, but they seemed to be done.

The middle is pretty sunken, and when I flip them over, bottoms up, eventually they sink down that way. I don't think I can use these cakes.

I want to make the recipe again, but don't want the same results. Any advice??

I had this issue with the lemon WASC, and after a few times i got it right. You need to use less liquid. I just kept adding a little liquid at a time until the batter looked like a good texture.

remember to account for the sourcream as well, it has moisture in it.

Hope this helps, it worked for me.

I modify it a little and have tried them both with the box mix wasc and the scratch wasc with great results. If using a box mix, I start with an orange or yellow cake base instead of white. I use:

One box cake mix
1 C all purpose flour
1 C white sugar
4 eggs
3/4 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 cartons (6oz size) of orange creamsicle yogurt
1/3 c oil
1 and 1/3 c of sunkist soda
2 tsp orange extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Sift all dry ingredients together. Add all wet ingredients. Mix well on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Pour into prepared pans and bake at 325. Comes out great for me each time! Hope that helps!

On the gourmet flavors thread they determined it may be too much sugar between the ice cream or juice that get used in a lot of these recipes. I think the recommendation was to cut the 2 cups of added sugar (for the double recipe) to 1 1/2 cups but I would PM Macsmom and double check what was recommended because my memory could be wrong.

Thank you so much! I did PM Macsmom so I'll see what she says too. And I'll try starting with a yellow mix instead of white and cutting down the sugar. Thanks for your help!

Last time I made it I had the same problem. The first time I made it came out great. I wondered if I had put too much liquid as well. I have to make it again next weekend for my son and would love to hear any feedback. SweetTater, if you get any feedback from MacsMom, please let me know.

Regular! Don't believe in diet soda lol!

Ok, I have never made this recipe before, but it sounds yummy. I was reading her problem and it occurred to me that unless her oven is off and she has to set it to 325 to make it right. that may be the problem too. She said it never rose enough. I am thinking that the heat may not have been hot enough to get it risen. Maybe if she started at 350 and let the cake rise and then turned the heat down and finished it baking there that might help too. Also on a cake that is no bigger around then 8" she would not need to set it that low. 25 degrees can make a difference. I have a gas range so I would probably cook it for at least 20 min at 350 and turn it down to 325 after that. Now electric stoves/ovens are not going to change instantly so you could probably do it after 15 min? maybe. I think that I would like to know that the cake has stayed at that height for a few min. before I changed tempteratures in the oven. Just some thoughts. Good luck.

Macsmom replied to my message and suggested baking at 350 or even 375 and without the baking strips. She said she doesn't always get consistent results with that recipe. I'm going to bake the above recipe that has the yogurt tonight, so I'll let you know how it turns out!

I am now very curious. I will have to go and check out the recipe and try it and let y'all know.

is that by any chance it? or is there one called Dreamsicle?

This doesn't help the OP with the original question (sorry), but just in general wanted to reccommend after you flip your cake out to cool, flip them back so they are sitting on their bottoms, not their tops. It has nothing to do with this recipe, but cakes in general seem to be sturdier when you flip them to their bottoms. Hope that makes sense.

Great tip, about flipping back to the bottoms after turning them out! I'll start doing that. But yes, these cakes were doomed before they even came out of the oven.

The orange dreamsicle I used calls for melted orange sherbet and diet sunkist, a modified WASC recipe my Macsmom. This is the one that seems to not always rise properly. Even Macsmom said it was "finicky"

I baked the above recipe last night with the orange yogurt. I started with a box of DH yellow cake mix. They turned out great! I baked at 325 with baking strips. I havent' tasted the cake yet, but the batter was delicious! And I used diet sunkist instead of regular because that's what I had on hand. The only thing I'd do differently is add some orange food coloring. I think it makes it look nicer to have an orange color. Also people aren't so surprised when they take a bite of yellow cake and it tasts like orange!

So thanks for the recipe! I'm glad to have a great orange dreamsicle cake to rely on!

Last night after I was on here reading I went and checked and there are two different recipes and two different names on CC. One is called Creamsicle and the other dreamsicle. I decided to print them both out and read them and compare. I didn't see a lot of differenced , but I also do not remember either one of them having sherbet in them. Did I miss something? I think that I will give them both a go and see which one I like the best. I love those those Ice cream pops. I have never really had success with these kinds of cakes, but I am going to try and see what I think and will let y'all know my results.

I don't know if the Dreamsicle recipe is on this site. I found a link to a google document that has tons of modified recipes by Macsmom plus great ideas for frosting/filling and cake combinations. I'll see if I can locate it and post a link.

Here's the link to all the recipes and flavor combos:

https://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df4f9hbq_46cs9f28fs

Thanks for the link Sweettator. Appreciate it. Yes the dreamsicle recipe was on CC. Also the creamsicle.

I just have never been successful with MacsMom's recipes - have tried the Orange Dreamsicle and the Key Lime Cake several times and have had to toss them in the garbage every time. I always think that I have found the solution and then I try it again and it's a failure. I think the recipes just call for too many products with high sugar content. My cakes always sink, shrink or are gummy (regardless how I adjust the oven temp or the time) and I end up tossing them. Maybe I need to try some of the revised recipes with less ingredients.

jewordsoflife:

thanks for putting this up. I have not tried the creamsicle or dreamsicle cake yet so will definitely keep this in mind too.