When I took cake decorating, the instructor taught us to use a cake mix but use milk instead of water and add a 1/2 tsp of almond extract.

As far a the firmness of the cake... you are going to have to experiment. Don't under bake the cake. Often actual wedding cakes get dried out from the cake part being frozen ahead of time. The cakes may also sit around a bit waiting to be frosted. I've always felt that was a problem with most wedding cakes...stale instead of fresh.

Are you wanting the cake firm for decorating purposes?

Nancy

This recipe makes a very dense white cake....wonderful flavor due to the butter and dense texture due to the cornstarch....and it's a big cake. It was not my grandmother's...but someone else's! LOL!

The recipe is my grandmother's and she had written across the top "make for weddings-real good".
ICE CREAM CAKE
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sifted flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 cup sifted cornstarch
1 cup milk 1 tsp. almond or vanilla extract
5 stiffly beaten egg whites
Cream sugar and butter together. Sift the flour, baking powder and cornstarch together. Alternate adding these to creamed mixture along with milk. Beat until very smooth. Add vanilla and then fold in egg whites that have been beaten until stiff. Bake in 2 greased and floured 8" round cake pans for 25 to 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Frost with Boiled White Icing. BOILED WHITE ICING 2 cups sugar 2/3 cup boiling water 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar 2 egg whites, stiffly beaten 1 tsp. vanilla In saucepan, combine, sugar, water, and cream of tartar, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil without stirring until syrup begins to spin a thread (235 degrees). Remove 3 Tbs. of the sugar mixture, adding one at a time to the egg whites. Cook syrup until it is really spinning a thread (240 degrees). Add all of syrup very slowly to egg whites, beating until as thick as desired. Stir in vanilla

Using, yogurt or sour cream in place of the water, will give you a dense, super moist boxed cake mix.(You can also halve the oil if using these.) I always add extra flavoring. Even if it's a t of vanilla. Buttermilk will also give you a great texture, very moist, but not near as dense as the yogurt or scream.

This is one from Cakecentral.com and if you go to that site, there are endless variations.
The *Original* WASC cake recipe
Ingredients

* The *original* WASC cake recipe by kakeladi
1 box cake mix (I prefer Betty Crocker) *see notes at end
1 cup flour*
1 cup granulated sugar
generous dash of salt

1 cup sour cream*
1 cup water *
3 whole eggs
1 tablespoon flavoring*

Instructions

1. In bowl mix together dry ingredients. ItÂs helpful to use a wire whisk; important w/choco cake not so much for other flavors. In mixer bowl place next 4 ingredients. Add about 1/2 of the dry ingredients and blend together, then add the rest of the dry ingredients & blend. Mix for 2 minutes.

2. Pour into prepared pans * and bake as usual.

4. *NOTES: *ANY* cake flavor can be used. Some tell me they just dump all ingredients into the bowl together others say they sift all dry ingredients together.

5. Match the flavoring to the cake flavor such use lemon/almond mix for lemon cake; strawberry for a strawberry cake etc, etc. For most flavors you can use a mixture of vanilla, butter, and almond which is what I do most of the time.

6. You can use milk, juice, thawed fzn concentrates, soda pop (ie: Coke) cream or just about anything wet for the liquid.

7. This recipe is based on mixing in a kitchenaid mixer. I use position #1 to stir it, then #4 to mix the batter.

8. Most of the time I forget to add the salt:)

9. On rare occasions I have used other brands of mix.

10. This makes the amount of batter as if you used 1 1/2 mixes and is perfect for a 10â³ sq OR 9Ã13 OR one 8â³ & two 6â³ round;OR two 8â³rounds OR a 12â³ round; and other combinations of pans.

11. I prefer to bake at 300 degrees for about 20-30 minutes (depending on size of cake) then turn oven up to 325 for about an equal time. If cake has pulled away from sides it is overbaked. After cooling, the top might be a bit sticky.

12. Some people have told me they use plain or flavored yogurt instead of sour cream.

13. IÂve always used all purpose flour. Some tell me they use cake flour but then the amount is less  maybe 3/4 cup  not sure.
    

14. The flavoring I most often use is this mixture:

15. 1 part vanilla extract

16. 1/2 part butter flavoring

17. 1/4 part almond flavoring

18. A "Part" is any measure be it teaspoon; tablespoon; cup or quart Smile Since I made many wedding cakes I usually mixed it up by the cup:)