HELPPPPPPPPPPP. I have made 2 cakes with the WASC recipe but used the choc cake mix and the eggs.Both cakes have risen on the outside and very slightly risen in the center. They are cooked but not very high. Should I cut back on the sugar? What can I try??? I bake them @ 325,and do just like you would for the WASC except use whole eggs. Im going nuts !!!!!!!!!!!

Did you cut the eggs back to 6 eggs for the 2 chocolate cake mixes? If not, that could be your problem...

Yes I used the half recipe so I used 3 eggs and the rest of the things were the same. Do you think I should cut back on the sugar?

Chocolate cakes are bad for not rising as high as white cakes. That could be the problem right there.
Even commercially available mixes do the same thing. Dunno what is up with that.

What kind of cake mix did you use? Is it possibly expired? And how about your eggs? Sometimes if they are fresh baked goods won't rise properly. Just some things to check. I used that recipe for chocolate this weekend and I didn't have a problem with it. Here's just a few things to check.

For what it's worth....when I have made WASC with chocolate cake mixes, I didn't change anything except flavorings and the mix. So it was chocolate cake mix and I didn't use almond but put in more vanillla. Eggs stayed the same. I don't recall it not rising worse/better than the regular recipe.

I've made many of the different WASC cake flavor variations and they've been great:

http://tinyurl.com/2cu8s4

What size pans did you use?
(For larger pan/s, a heating core or flower nails are necommended. Bake right strips also help.)

Might be an under/over mixing or other preparation error.

Cake troubleshooting charts:

http://tinyurl.com/2p5bdu
(Joyofbaking.com.)

http://tinyurl.com/3dmp96
(Sarah Phillips of baking911.com.)

Here are all four Wilton cake preparation and serving guides:

http://www.wilton.com/cake/cakeprep/baking/times/index.cfm

The above gives batter requirements by pan sizes (2-3" deep) and more info.

HTH