This is the second time I've used the WASC cake recipe and while I love the density and flavor of this cake, both times my cakes have started bleeding.  The first cake was covered in fondant and halfway though the birthday party, the fondant started to buckle and the cake was seeping.  The second was only buttercream and both did the same thing.  I tried to capture it in the picture, see the glisten at the bottom of the cake?  It is like the cake is leaking, the consistency is like oil and it has no taste.  Has anyone had this problem?  Please help, I want to keep using this recipe but I can't if I can't get it to hold up.  Thank you!!

Hm..I'm thinking it wasn't the cake but possibly the filling or buttercream. Can you give some more info?? What was it filled with? What was the weather like when you served the cakes? Were the cakes previously refrigerated?

We used the same BC that we've always used and never had a problem.  It's a crusting buttercream using Crisco and no butter.  I'm in FL and it's always hot and humid and this BC has stood up to the elements with no issues. 

The first cake had been previously frozen and was cool to the touch but was not frozen.  It had a raspberry filling but we did the BC dam like we have in the past.  The cake was decorated Friday night and started bleeding Saturday afternoon.

The second cake was baked today, completely cooled and had not been refrigerated.  It was filled and iced with just buttercream.  It started bleeding about 2 hours after being covered in BC.

Both cakes were in air conditioned houses the whole time. 

This has also been my experience with WASC cakes, but I have never covered one in fondant so I have not seen this happen. I always attributed it to the EXTREME moistness of the cake. I would develop what I thought was a "syrup" at the base of the cake. It could also be that something simply did not completely homogenize because you add "foreign" ingredients, and it separated later on. Though I am told that mixes are designed to be very flexible and this shouldn't happen. 

Well at least I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one.  Have you come across a better recipe?  I don't mind baking from scratch, I just have had orders each week so I haven't had time to test recipes.  I do a lot of tiered cakes and will be doing my first topsy turvy in October and I would like to have a nice go-to recipe for a dense/sturdy cake.  Thanks!

I use WASC all of the time, but although moist, it has never seeped when covered in BC and/or fondant. 

The only "flavorless" liquid that I know of is water.........I'd think that anything coming from the cake would have flavor and/or color.

I don't "know" what's going on, but I think it's just condensation.  To me, that means that you have very humid air that you're cooling but not dehumidifying well and condensation is developing.

I'd try putting a box over the cakes as they sit on the counter and see if it happens again.

Also, are you adjusting your WASC recipe--if it's the original--for the new, smaller weight mixes?  If not, there's too much liquid for the amount of mix and you need to add 3 oz. additional dry mix for each mix used.

Yes, now mixes are 15.5 oz. 

The original WASC recipes were for 18.25 oz. mixes, so when I do a regular 2 mix WASC recipe, I add a scant 6 oz. of additional mix.  In doing so, I've found no difference in my cakes.

AWe made this cake using one layer white and one layer chocolate cake both using the WASC recipe with 18 oz of cake mix . Happy to say that not only did it NOT bleed, it survived outdoors during a rainy afternoon in the Florida heat!! thank you thank you for solving my problem!!![IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3044659/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Very nice cake!
 

Beautiful cake and maybenot, thank you for sharing, I've been doing the same thing.  Although I haven't had any seeping, draining or anything other related problems.  I will adjust mine tho.

Lovely cake--glad to have been helpful.