Italian Cream Cake

My mom's had this recipe for years and why I waited until now to get it from her and make it is a mystery. It's SO good. I was actually talking to a friend (Hi Crys!) the other day about this cake. Crys is the dessert chef for a restaurant in Florida and I told her about this cake. Then I thought....hey! I need to make this cake, too! It's so incredibly good. If you're searching for a dessert to make mom for Mother's Day tomorrow...or any day...try this! You won't be disappointed!

Italian Cream Cake



Cake:

2 cups sugar
1 stick butter – room temp
½ cup Crisco
5 eggs - divided
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda
2 cups flour (I used cake flour. Just add 2 tablespoons MORE cake flour per cup of regular flour)
1 cup chopped nuts
2 cups coconut

Cream together the sugar, butter and Crisco. Add egg yolks, one at a time until well blended. In a small bowl, combine buttermilk and soda. Add buttermilk mixture alternately with flour, beginning and ending with flour.

Beat egg whites until stiff then fold into batter.

Fold in nuts and coconut.

Divide mixture into 3 8-inch cake pans and bake for 30 – 35 minutes at 350 degrees.
(Note: I didn't have 3 8-inch pans so I used 2 9-inch, then split them after they had baked.)

Cool for 10 minutes then remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

Frosting:

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese – softened
2 sticks butter – room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 pounds powdered sugar
Chopped pecans ~ optional

Cream together cream cheese and butter. Add vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar until smooth. Apply frosting between layers and on sides of cake. Press chopped pecans onto sides of cake, if desired.

Here's the goods. I used cake 

flour instead of all-purpose flour. 

Just add 2 extra tablespoons of cake

 flour per cup of regular flour.

 

Cream to together the sugar, butter and Crisco.

 

Then add the egg yolks, one at a time.

 

Then add the dry ingredients alternately 

with the buttermilk/soda mixture...

beginning and ending with the flour.

 

Here's what it looks like to this point.

 

Whip the egg whites until stiff but not dry.

 

Fold in a small amount of egg white....

 

then work on folding in the rest.

 

You want to nice light batter.

 

Then add the coconut and chopped pecans.

 

Divide into your pans. I used 2 9-inch 

pans but 3 8-inch works, too.

 

All baked and cooled.

 

If you're using 3 8-inch pans, you 

can skip this step. If you're using the

9-inch pans, split each layer then frost 

between each layer. I didn't post pictures 

of the frosting cuz I figured you're a bunch 

of smarties and know how to do that. Also...I forgot.

 

Yum!!