Finally A Scratch Wasc Recipe!

Decorating By LorienSkye Updated 5 Oct 2019 , 3:38am by SandraSmiley

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LorienSkye Posted 5 Oct 2009 , 7:41pm
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Like many of you, I pride myself on baking from scratch. And, like many of you, I have searched far and wide for a great white scratch recipe with no luck. I kept going back to WASC just because it is easy and good, but there are several problems I have with WASC (as other posters have mentioned as well):
- My cakes tend to sink in the middle
- The cakes are TOO moist and therefore not great for carving, etc.
Then, one happy day I came across an amazing recipe for WASC that is from scratch. I can't take credit for this gem, it was originally posted on CC by edencakes. Let me tell you though, cake buddies, this is THE recipe. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now with outstanding results. It's super moist with a very fine crumb, has a delicious flavor, bakes up like a dream, and is firm enough for stacking and carving. I have even used this base recipe and made slight modifications for lemon cake, peanut butter cake, coconut cake, and pumpkin spice cake all with excellent, consistent results every time! So here it is:

A Better White Scratch Cake:

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/2165/A-Better-White-Scratch-Cake

The OP didn't state a bake temp, but I have been baking at 350 with great results. Also, when I am not looking for a pure white cake I just use 5 whole eggs instead of 10 egg whites, and have had no problems doing so.THANK YOU edencakes for this amazing recipe!

448 replies
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Tee-Y Posted 5 Oct 2009 , 7:52pm
post #2 of 449

Thank you sooooo much, I'm definitely going to try this! thumbs_up.gif

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bashini Posted 5 Oct 2009 , 9:22pm
post #3 of 449

Thank you so much for posting this. Can't wait to try it!!! icon_biggrin.gif

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cylstrial Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 1:29am
post #4 of 449

Very cool!! Thanks for sharing!

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kjskid Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 1:35am
post #5 of 449

How much cake does this make?

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Elise87 Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 1:38am
post #6 of 449

awesome thanks for posting!!!

Couple of questions:

1. Does c = cups?
2. How many cups of flour does it say because my comp made the text look funny on that line

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Deb_ Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 1:41am
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OP stated it makes 10 cups of batter.


I'm curious......have you tried subbing out the shortening with butter?

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Lenette Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 1:41am
post #8 of 449

Thank you for sharing your good results. I wonder about using butter (or at least part butter) in this? Maybe I'll give it a shot this week.

Yeah, I'm a butter girl. icon_biggrin.gif

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Deb_ Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 1:47am
post #9 of 449

Me too Lenette.....if you do try it, please let us know how you like it....I'd appreciate it greatly!

Thanks!

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Elise87 Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 1:50am
post #10 of 449

oh i totally missed out the fact it had shortening it in, i would also be curious about the butter cose i don't use shortening

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dailey Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 1:51am
post #11 of 449

sounds great (except for the shortening)...hope someone tries it with butter and reports back!

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kjskid Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 1:57am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dkelly

OP stated it makes 10 cups of batter.




Oh dear, that's what I get for skimming. icon_redface.gif

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erinalicia Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 4:24pm
post #13 of 449

I'd like to try this, but how do you add the shortening? Just dump it in solid or does it have to be creamed? If you use butter does it need to be done the same way? The only recipe I've used that has shortening in it was for a pound cake and the shortening was creamed in the first step with the sugar.

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Deb_ Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 6:36pm
post #14 of 449
Quote:
Originally Posted by kjskid

Quote:
Originally Posted by dkelly

OP stated it makes 10 cups of batter.



Oh dear, that's what I get for skimming. icon_redface.gif




No worries....I skim all the time!! icon_biggrin.gif

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mkolmar Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 8:35pm
post #15 of 449

I've been looking for a scratch version for a VERY long time now. Thank you for posting. I think I'll make this soon and try it with butter though, not crazy about shortening.

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Lenette Posted 6 Oct 2009 , 9:33pm
post #16 of 449

Just baked some cupcakes with butter and a couple other modifications.

Cupcakes are YUMMY!

The first batch I screwed up cuz I added 10 whole eggs, not paying attention. Anyway, re-bake went much better.

2 1/2 cups of milk was WAAAAY too much but I use cake flour and I sift so I thought that may be the culprit. 1 cup was just fine.

So, I made the following changes:

1 cup of milk instead of 2 1/2
butter no shortening
5 whole eggs
added 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
I used vanilla, no almond


I think that's it. Sorry, I never seem to follow a recipe as written. icon_wink.gif

After the cupcakes were so good (and light and fluffy and tender, well I could go on... icon_biggrin.gif ), I put in the cake layers. So far they have baked up nice and flat, nice color etc.

I am very pleased with this so far. Hope this helps someone and you will give it a try! icon_smile.gif


ETA-- I forgot to say that I mixed a bit different too. icon_redface.gif

I sifted the flour, added other dry ingredients. Then eggs, butter and sour cream in that order. Vanilla then milk.

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Elise87 Posted 8 Oct 2009 , 12:58pm
post #17 of 449

Lenette: Have you made the WASC before with only egg whites? Cose i want to substitute 5 whole eggs instead of 10 egg whites in the recipe too and wondered if you found the whole eggs gave it a different taste?

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Lenette Posted 8 Oct 2009 , 2:27pm
post #18 of 449

Nope. sorry never tried it with just whites. I don't see how the taste would be that different. In my experience "yellow" cakes are more tender than "white" cakes because of the yolks.

I think that would be the biggest difference.

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Deb_ Posted 8 Oct 2009 , 8:17pm
post #19 of 449

Lenette, thanks for sharing your results and tips for this recipe. I can't wait to try it. icon_smile.gif

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Deb_ Posted 11 Oct 2009 , 8:07pm
post #20 of 449

Hi everyone,

I tried this one out today with butter and the rest of Lenette's suggestions....i.e. 1 cup milk, 1/2tsp bak soda, 5 whole eggs, and vanilla (no almond).

It's a very moist yet light and fluffy cake with a fine crumb. All family members that tasted it agree. This is a keeper.

Thanks OP for sharing and thanks Lenette for your substitutions. thumbs_up.gif

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pajnpis Posted 12 Oct 2009 , 1:29am
post #21 of 449

what's the oven temp and baking time?

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MrsAB Posted 12 Oct 2009 , 1:50am
post #22 of 449

Thanks for the post. I'm looking forward to trying this recipe.

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Deb_ Posted 12 Oct 2009 , 1:54am
post #23 of 449

I baked at 350 degrees....2- 10" pans for approx 50 min. The cakes both baked up very even with no dome and didn't shrink or fall at all upon cooling. This is a great cake, easy too!

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loulou2 Posted 12 Oct 2009 , 2:20am
post #24 of 449

Thank you. I look forward to trying this out soon. I would love to stop buying box mixes so I won't feel like I'm cheating. icon_smile.gif

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kiki80 Posted 12 Oct 2009 , 2:25am
post #25 of 449

you guys are WONDERFUL!!!! I was looking for a recipe from scratch I'll try this tomorrow morning. Thank you so so much. icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gif

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Deb_ Posted 12 Oct 2009 , 2:25am
post #26 of 449

LOL, you're not "cheating", it's just a different method that's all.

Good luck!

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cocobean Posted 12 Oct 2009 , 3:02am
post #27 of 449

My ears always perk up when I hear about a good white cake recipe, with a fine crumb. I'm going to have to give it a try! Thanks so much for posting this!

After reading the others posts I'm wondering if the gal who used butter ( my favorite ingredient) instead of the shortening, found she only needed 1 cup milk instead of 2 1/2 cups because of that substitution alone.

I recently read a post about "butter". It said that butter is partly milk and water. If you think about it it makes sense. If you melt butter it will separate and you will end up with the whey (I believe, on top) and the clarified butter fat on the bottom. That must account for using significantly less milk when you use butter instead of shortening. I know when I melt shortening it never separates it's just all liquid fat.

So now my question is, if you substitute butter for shortening and use less liquid, how much fat should you be trying to replace? Do you need to sub a little more butter for the shortening?

Just my 2 cents. Anyway I'm really excited to try the first recipe with the shortening and then try any changes after that if I'm feeling like I want to experiment. I definately will try adding butter flavoring with the shortening recipe for an experiment.

One more thought on experimenting with this recipe is...I wonder what difference it would make to melt the shortening before adding it in the recipe? I have read about liquid shortening called for in white cakes made in bakeries. But it sounded like they purchased it that way (I mean in a liquid form). I tried to search it out but didn't have a lot of luck. I'm just wondering out loud.

Can you tell I think a lot about white cake? It's because I have a favorite bakery that makes great white cake. I am always comparing every white cake I make to theirs. I've never been able to duplicate it for myself. icon_cry.gif For now I am excited to try this new recipe out! Thanks again! Sorry so long. icon_redface.gif

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Deb_ Posted 12 Oct 2009 , 3:23am
post #28 of 449

cocobean, I too substituted butter for the shortening. I used 1 1/3 cup butter (same amount as the shortening) and I too only needed 1 cup of milk.

I let the butter soften to room temp and creamed it with the sugar first, then added the eggs one at a time, vanilla, sour cream and then the dry ingredients (sifted) alternately with the milk. I treated it as any other scratch yellow/white cake as far as the mixing method went.

I use cake flour (sifted) so that could be why I only needed the 1 cup of milk, not sure...but the batter was perfect after only adding 1 cup so I stopped at that point.

I used 5 whole eggs and it is a very pale yellow cake. I think I'll try it with the 10 egg whites next time for a true white cake result.

HTH

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LorienSkye Posted 12 Oct 2009 , 3:25am
post #29 of 449

I'm so glad you guys are having as much fun playing with this recipe as I have! Lenette- I'm excited to try your modifications with butter instead of shortening. Here are a few other subs I have made to the original recipe with great results:
*Substitute creamy peanut butter for the shortening (same amount)....Makes an AMAZING peanut butter cake which I then pair with chocolate buttercream. When I make this peanut butter version, I always use 5 whole eggs instead of the 10 egg whites.

*Substitute flavored liquid creamer instead of the milk. My fave so far has been the white chocolate raspberry.

*Substitute canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix, just regular pumpkin) for the sour cream. Add 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and a 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg for an amazing pumpkin spice cake. It pairs deeeeliciously with cream cheese frosting.

Happy Baking guys and gals!

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mija10417 Posted 12 Oct 2009 , 3:39pm
post #30 of 449

Has one tried substituting buttermilk for the milk?

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