Italian Cream Cake: Easter Bliss

Italian Cream Cake

For Easter, I made an Italian Cream Cake (recipe below).  I love this light and airy cake filled with layers of pecan and coconut cream cheese frosting!

The only difference between my cake and the recipe below is I didn't have three 9-inch round pans.  So I had to make three thin layers in a 9x13 and a 13x18 pan (cut in half).  It makes for a very low three-tiered cake, but being a college student, I made what I had on hand work!

A few tips: I used a Pampered Chef Food Chopper to chop the nuts.  I wish I had a food processor, but this chopper works pretty well.  Actually, my brother chopped most of the pecans on a little plastic bread board.  I did have an angled spatula for frosting the cake.  It makes slathering the thin layers of frosting easier.  Also, I let the cake completely cool before filling and frosting!

So with the cake being Italian (though I don't really know why it's called Italian Cream Cake) I thought I'd showcase Dean Martin singing "Mambo Italiano."  Even though Rosemary Clooney recorded Bob Merrill's tune first in 1955 and made it a hit, I love something in Dean Martin's version.  It has a certain "je ne sais quoi."

ITALIAN CREAM CAKE          

Cake:

2 sticks of butter, at room temperature

2 c. sugar

5 egg yolks

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 c. buttermilk (or slightly less than 1 cup milk combined with 1 Tbsp. lemon juice)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. Baker's sweetened flaked coconut

1 c. toasted pecans, finely chopped

5 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks

Cream butter. Add sugar and beat until mixture is smooth. Add egg yolks and beat well. Combine flour and soda and add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Stir in vanilla. Add coconut and pecans. Fold in beaten egg whites.

Spray Pam on three greased and lightly floured 9-inch round pans. Bake at 350 degrees until done, approximately 30 minutes.  (My thin cakes only needed to bake for about 22 minutes.)

Frosting and Filling:

2 - 8 oz packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick of butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 c. Baker's sweetened flaked coconut

2 c. finely chopped pecans

Combine cream cheese and butter in mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla extract and beat until well incorporated. Gradually add in powdered sugar, mix on low speed until the frosting reaches the desired consistency. Add coconut and chopped pecans and mix well. Drop three dollops of frosting onto first layer and spread from the middle to the sides. Repeat with remaining layers. Frost sides of cake.  The frosting on top and sides as well as the filling layers will be very thin if using the 9x13 pans as I did.)