FINALLY a scratch WASC recipe! - Page 22

I'm a butter girl too. I may just give this recipe a try.

Yesterday, I baked up a half batch of the wasc using butter and no other substitutions. The cupcakes were light and fluffy 20 minutes out of the oven (what can I say, I couldn't wait to taste it ) but today the cupcakes are very dense and dry. I love the taste but how can I ensure it maintains that fluffy texture?

This is how I halved the recipe:

3.5 c. cake flour (I use unbleached kaf, I hope this isn't the problem)
1 2/3 c. sugar
1TBS+ 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2/3 c. butter (softened, room temp)
8 oz full fat sour cream
1/2 c. milk (I used about 3/4 c. because the batter looked too thick)
1/2 TBS vanilla extract
3 whole eggs

FYI: I sifted the dry ingredients into my mixer, mixed it for a bit and added the butter, and added the liquids (sour cream, vanilla, eggs, and the milk last). I mixed it for 2 minutes on 5 (on my KA). I baked the cupcakes for about 20 minutes at 335F. I set out to use only 1/2 c. of milk but ended up using almost 3/4 cup for the half batch.
Do you have any suggestions for what I might have done wrong? Should I have dumped all of the ingredients in as stated in OP? My apologies for so many questions but I am fairly new to this (I have always baked from scratch but I want to learn as much as I can). I am also trying to find a go-to recipe that I can rely on. Not to mention, I plan to bake the cupcakes for my daughter's 2nd birthday party next month!! I want to experience all of the scratch wasc's goodness!!

Edited: I let the cupcakes sit in the pan for 5 minutes, I then put them in a container and put the lid half way on. I think it may have steamed them because the tops of the cupcakes were sticky. I don't know if that helps but I wanted you all to know exactly what I did.

Thanking you in advance for your time and wealth of knowledge

Wow, awesome thread!
I am going to try the orginal scratch white wasc, and I'd like to know how many of you cream the shortening with the sugar first, then add eggs and sour cream, then dry ingredients? how many of you use the wasc method and mix all together?
Also, I saw that subbing creamer can mess up the baked result(like the butter and whole eggs) a little because of the fat content. What if you used fat free creamer? hmmm....any thoughts?

I am looking for a nice stackable and sturdy cake but not as dense and moist as the box wasc. So after reading this for hours now I am going to try it with the shortening, egg whites, and vanilla fat free creamer instead of the milk. Now, to decide if I should use 1 cup or 2.5 cups... and if I should use yogurt instead of the sour cream. Or maybe a fat free sour cream.
Wish me luck

Ok, just baked up a 6 inch original scratch white wasc. I halved the recipe. WOW, amazing cake. SOOOOOOO much better than wasc. It is so moist yet light, fluffy, and sturdy. Everything I want in a cake. This is what I did:
2.5 c cake flour (Iused ap flour +cornstarch, google for amounts)
1 2/3 c sugar
1T + 1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 c. fat free vanilla creamer
2/3 c shortening (walmart brand cuz it has the trans fat)
1 c. full fat sour cream
3/4 T clear vanilla
5 egg whites.

All my ingredients were room temp. I creamed the shortening and sugar for about 10-15 mins. Then added egg whites (NOT whisked). Then alternated dry ingredients to wet, starting and ending with dry. Then added vanilla. Baked at 350 for 50 mins. I used a flower nail.

The only thing I didn't care for it was the metallic aftertaste from the baking powder. I might add more flavoring next time. Other than that, a PERFECT CAKE!!!!!!!

THANKS FOR THIS THREAD!!

careylynn, you're saying the after taste came from the baking powder . You know I just made the peanut butter variation last night. I was so happy with the texture but the felt like throwing out the whole batch because of the strong chemical after taste. I thought it might be the cake flour that I'm using (Robin hood cake & pastry flour). I'm pretty new in baking, could you guys help me with getting rid of that awful aftertaste? Will using more flavor really help? I use the Magic baking powder by Kraft foods.

juststarted...yea, the metallic aftertaste is from the aluminum in some baking powders. I researched it after I baked my last cake. Here is the website I found that is very helpful.

http://www.culinate.com/articles/features/baking_powder

I immediately ordered new baking powder and I'll let you know when I bake another cake from this recipe using the new non-aluminum one!!!

That's a great article careylynn. I didn't check by baking powder yet but I'm sure one of the ingredients will read aluminum. let me know how your venture goes.

Ok, well, I baked the same cake today with the non-aluminum baking powder and completely got rid of the metallic taste! Yay! On the other hand, I learned that pastry flour and cake flour are NOT the same. I swear I have read on another thread that they are interchangable, and no way they are! I ordered bobs red mill whole wheat pastry flour when I ordered the bp. It made the cake very crumbly, not even usable and it tasted like cornbread, lol. Thats ok though, I'm just glad I got rid of nasty aftertaste! I'm going to give it a third try with either real cake flour or what I did orginally, ap flour + cornstarch. I'll let ya know if third times a charm! I WILL MASTER THIS!!

Has anyone tried this recipe using mandarin oranges? If so, would you omit the sourcream?

Has anyone tried using this recipe to make a peanut butter cake? Do you use the peanut butter in place of sour cream??

bakemeacake78, back on page 2, there are a bunch of variations.

Peanut Butter Scratch WASC

* 5 c cake flour
3 1/3 c sugar
2 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 1/2 c milk
1 1/3 c creamy peanut butter
16oz sour cream
1 Tbsp vanilla or almond extract
5 whole eggs

Oh great! Thanks. Don't know how I missed that one.

I'm definitely trying some of these recipes tomorrow! I'm just getting into cakes & noticed the WASC recipe mentioned a lot, but I noticed it called for cake mix and I wanted to try to keep everything I make totally from scratch.

One question though I noticed that some were discussing the issue with the taste of the baking power, would it be possible to reduce some & still get it to rise at least a decent amount? I know that egg whites act as leveners, so would not going all whole eggs help with this (I don't think I would do all whites though since it tends to dry out cakes)?

Just get non-aluminium baking powder, then you won't have the metallic aftertaste. I wouldn't lessen the amount or else you will end up with a more crumbly and dense cake.

Yeah, I guess I'll have to give that a try.

One more question that I'm sure has been asked but I just missed. How does the cake hold up to freezing?