Italian Cream Cake Trifle, this is the most amazing trifle! Layers of classic fluffy Italian Cream Cake combined with delicious layers of creamy pudding, pecans and coconut will bring smiles to everyone who eats this!

Italian Cream Cake Trifle, this is the most amazing trifle! Layers of classic fluffy Italian Cream Cake combined with delicious layers of creamy pudding, pecans and coconut will bring smiles to everyone who eats this!

Italian Cream Cake Trifle my oh my! What a fantastic dessert! This Italian Cream Cake Trifle is the trifle of all trifles!

Sally has created this trifle based on her lovely Italian Cream Cake recipe.

Her family and friends absolutely love the cake so Sally decided she would make a Italian Cream Cake Trifle using the cake ingredients. It was a sure hit! Sally made 2 trifles to take along to a gathering and they were devoured in no time. Everyone was asking for her recipe and said it was like nothing else they had tried before!

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This recipe is one which you can make a couple of days ahead and simply assemble on the day of serving. It's a show stopper so if you wanted to impress your diners, this is the one!

It is very easy to make, but people will really think you spent ages making it!

The hardest part is just waiting a few hours for the trifle to chill a little, although that isn't essential, if you have no patience or you're just drooling too much, simply grab a spoon and dig in as soon as you make it!

It really is a wonderful dessert, suitable for any occasion so let's get straight to the recipe and see how we make Sally's Italian Cream Cake Trifle. Please do enjoy!

Recipe by Sally Hall

Ingredients

The Cake

¼ cup room temperature Butter
¼ cup Butter flavored shortening (or use butter)
1 ¼ cups Sugar
3 medium Eggs
½ teaspoon Baking Soda
dash of Salt
1 ¼ cups All Purpose Flour
½ cup Buttermilk *
(if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, take ½ cup whole milk and add 1
teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice)
¾ cups Coconut shredded
½ cup chopped Pecans
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

The Pudding

1 small box of French Vanilla Instant Pudding
1 ¾ cups milk
1 eight oz container of Mascarpone Cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 small container of Cool Whip or whipped topping.

The Topping

1 sixteen ounce package of shredded coconut -toasted
1 ½ cups of chopped pecans -toasted.

Italian Cream Cake Trifle, this is the most amazing trifle! Layers of classic fluffy Italian Cream Cake combined with delicious layers of creamy pudding, pecans and coconut will bring smiles to everyone who eats this!

Instructions

Make the cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan. (if you have any batter left over, simply pop in a couple of cupcake liners).

2. Cream butter and butter flavored shortening until smooth. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs one at a time, just until the yellow disappears. Mix for about 30 seconds more.

3. Combine flour, baking soda and dash of salt. Set aside.

4. Add ⅓ of the flour mixture (above) to the creamed mixture. Mix well. Now add ½ of the buttermilk. Mix well. Add another ⅓ of the flour mixture, rest of the buttermilk, then last of the flour mixture, mixing well after each addition. (i.e. flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour) Add the vanilla & mix well.

5. Stir in the remaining ingredients, coconut and pecans. Pour evenly into the greased and floured cake pan.

6. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and remove from pans. Let cool completely.

Make the pudding

7. Mix the Instant pudding with the milk and allow to set. This should only take 5 - 10 minutes.

8. In a separate bowl, mix the mascarpone and sweetened condensed milk well until smooth. The instant pudding should now be set; add this to the mascarpone mixture and mix well. Now fold in the Cool Whip and refrigerate until ready to assemble.

Build the Trifle

9. Break up the cake (you can just use your hands) so it is in small pieces or large crumbs). Then assemble and layer starting with cake, pudding, coconut and pecans, repeat 1-2 times. If you end with pudding and toasted coconut sprinkled on top you can cover with plastic and it comes off fairly clean.

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our Italian Cream Cake Trifle recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Italian Cream Cake Trifle, this is the most amazing trifle! Layers of classic fluffy Italian Cream Cake combined with delicious layers of creamy pudding, pecans and coconut will bring smiles to everyone who eats this! #Italian #Trifle #Christmas #Thanksgiving #

Recipe Card

Italian Cream Cake Trifle, this is the most amazing trifle! Layers of classic fluffy Italian Cream Cake combined with delicious layers of creamy pudding, pecans and coconut will bring smiles to everyone who eats this!

Italian Cream Cake Trifle

Yield: 10 - 12
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes

Italian Cream Cake Trifle, this is the most amazing trifle! Layers of classic fluffy Italian Cream Cake combined with delicious layers of creamy pudding, pecans and coconut will bring smiles to everyone who eats this!

Ingredients

The Cake:

  • ¼ cup room temperature Butter
  • ¼ cup Butter flavored shortening, or use butter
  • 1 ¼ cups Sugar
  • 3 medium Eggs
  • ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
  • dash of Salt
  • 1 ¼ cups All Purpose Flour
  • ½ cup Buttermilk *
  • t (if you don’ have buttermilk on hand, take ½ cup whole milk and add 1
  • teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice)
  • ¾ cups Coconut shredded
  • ½ cup chopped Pecans
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

The Pudding:

  • 1 small box of French Vanilla Instant Pudding
  • 1 ¾ cups milk
  • 1 oz eight container of Mascarpone Cheese
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 small container of Cool Whip or whipped topping.

The Topping:

  • 1 ounce sixteen package of shredded coconut -toasted
  • 1 ½ cups of chopped pecans -toasted.

Instructions

Make the cake:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9 inch cake pan. (if you have any batter left over, simply pop in a couple of cup cake liners).
  2. Cream butter and butter flavored shortening until smooth. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs one at a time, just until the yellow disappears. Mix for about 30 seconds more.
  3. Combine flour, baking soda and dash of salt. Set aside.
  4. Add ⅓ of the flour mixture (above) to the creamed mixture. Mix well. Now add ½ of the buttermilk. Mix well. Add another ⅓ of the flour mixture, rest of the buttermilk, then last of the flour mixture, mixing well after each addition. (i.e. flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour) Add the vanilla & mix well.
  5. Stir in the remaining ingredients, coconut and pecans. Pour evenly into the greased and floured cake pan.
  6. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and remove from pans. Let cool completely.

Make the pudding:

  1. Mix the Instant pudding with the milk and allow to set. This should only take 5 - 10 minutes.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix the mascarpone and sweetened condensed milk well until smooth. The instant pudding should now be set; add this to the mascarpone mixture and mix well. Now fold in the Cool Whip and refrigerate until ready to assemble.

Build the Trifle:

  1. Break up the cake (you can just use your hands) so it is in small pieces or large crumbs).Then assemble and layer starting with cake, pudding, coconut and pecans, repeat 1-2 times. If you end with pudding and toasted coconut sprinkled on top you can cover with plastic and it comes off fairly clean.

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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1037Total Fat: 68gSaturated Fat: 45gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 20gCholesterol: 96mgSodium: 650mgCarbohydrates: 103gFiber: 14gSugar: 69gProtein: 12g

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42 thoughts shared

    1. Hi Judy, just wrap the cake right in plastic wrap or an air tight container and refrigerate. It will stop it from drying out! Happy Christmas!

  1. Sounds like my kind of recipe! I’m thinking of letting the cake dry out a bit and then sprinkling it with a bit of bourbon as I layer the ingredients. :)

    1. Comment author image

      Margie McPherson

      says:

      Hi Debbie my family is making this for years and you can use any kind of not you’d like almonds walnuts, hazelnuts whatever you like

  2. II can’t wait to make this. What size bowl did you use in the picture? If I have to purchase a bowl what size should I get? One person stated a 9″ cake was not enough. Is the typical. Thank you.

  3. Comment author image

    Jennifer Bailey

    says:

    Amazing recipe and definite crowd pleaser! I have made this several times and wouldn’t change a thing. I do find that I have to bake the cake about 40 minutes though, but that’s just my oven. Thanks for sharing, definitely one of my favs!

  4. For this recipe, could you substitute a diabetic sweetener for real sugar? I’m always searching for these type of recipes for my husband. (Italian cream cake trifle)

    1. Hi Rose,
      I haven’t had any feedback so far from anyone using sweetener for this recipe, however, if you are used to substituting in your baking, then I would say give it a go! I am sure it will be fine, and please do pop back and let us know if you get to try it with your swap!
      Thanks

  5. It was very good and yes, a show stopper. However, one cake was not enough. I had to make two, but would say I only used 1 1/2. There was more than plenty of the pudding to accomodate two cakes though. If I were to make it again, I would use less sugar in the cake; 1 cup would have been plenty. Thanks for the recipe.

  6. We made two of these for my son’s fiancée’s bridal shower yesterday. Luscious completion to a complete Italian meal! We didn’t change anything except cutting back on the coconut by just one cup to accommodate the size of the trifle bowls we have and using just half the mascarpone because our grocer had a limited supply and other three in our area did not carry it. Even so, it was delicious & the filling set up well

  7. You say 1/2 cup buttermilk in ingredients, and direct to add 1/2 cup buttermilk when mixing with 1/3 flour mixture, and then say to add the rest of the buttermilk. How much buttermilk altogether?

    1. Hi Tara, thanks for writing in. It is a total of 1/2 cup buttermilk. The instructions should read add half of the buttermilk with flour then add the remaining buttermilk, (to avoid the cake batter from splitting if added all in one go). I have made the instructions a little clearer so I hope it helps! Thanks for pointing it out!