Italian Cream Cake…

Well yesterday our neighbors celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary with a cookout and around here my hubby's mom is famous for her Italian Cream Cakes, so they asked her to bake one for them. She agreed, but since she would be out of town on vacation this took some creative thinking. Monday she baked two cakes and froze them and then Thursday night I placed them in the oven (no it wasn't on) overnight to thaw. So Friday while my sweet girl was napping I had some frosting to make and some cakes to assemble. The great thing about this cake is that it does freeze and still turn out fantastic, plus the frosting is super easy to make. Next time you need a dessert and you're running low on time you can whip one or two of these up a few days in advance. Just pop the cakes in the freezer until the day before, thaw when ready and once you frost them, viola! So now that you have cream cake on the brain, here is the recipe. Enjoy and happy baking!

Italian Cream Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 stick margarine
1 c crisco
2 c sugar
5 egg yolks
1 c buttermilk
1 small can coconut
2 c flour
1 tsp soda
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 c nuts, chopped
5 egg whites, beaten

For the frosting:

1 lb powdered sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 pkg (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c chopped pecans

Directions:

For the cake: In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside. In the bowl of your mixer cream the sugar and shortening add the egg yokes and dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk and vanilla. Beat the egg whites till stiff and fold in the nuts and coconut. Divide the cake batter between 3, 9" pans, bake at 350º for 30-35 minutes.

For the frosting: Combine the first 4 ingredients in your mixer and blend until smooth, then incorporate the nuts. Spread 1/3 of the frosting on the bottom layer and top with the next cake, repeat and finish with the last 1/3 of frosting.