Name: Italian Cream Cake Trifle
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 10
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1/4 cup room temperature Butter; 1/4 cup Butter flavored shortening, or use butter; 1 1/4 cups Sugar; 3 medium Eggs; 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda; dash of Salt; 1 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour; 1/2 cup Buttermilk *; t (if you don’ have buttermilk on hand, take 1/2 cup whole milk and add 1; teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice); 3/4 cups Coconut shredded; 1/2 cup chopped Pecans; 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract; 1 small box of French Vanilla Instant Pudding; 1 3/4 cups milk; 1 oz eight container of Mascarpone Cheese; 1 can sweetened condensed milk; 1 small container of Cool Whip or whipped topping.; 1 ounce sixteen package of shredded coconut -toasted; 1 1/2 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!

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

Table of Contents 📋 hide

7) Italian Cream Cake Trifle

8) Delicious Trifle Recipes

Prep Time

20 - 30 minutes

Cook Time

25 minutes

Yield

10 - 12 Persons

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.

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!

Recipe Card

Italian Cream Cake Trifle

Yield: 10 - 12

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

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:

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).
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.
Combine flour, baking soda and dash of salt. Set aside.
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.
Stir in the remaining ingredients, coconut and pecans. Pour evenly into the greased and floured cake pan.
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:

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

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

Delicious Trifle Recipes

Here's a selection of delicious trifles for you to enjoy!

Share your thoughts

42 thoughts shared

Judy
says:
March 25th, 2021 at 12:36 pm

If you add all the pecans and coconut to cake batter as described, what pecans and coconut do you layer in between?

Pat
says:
June 15th, 2019 at 11:06 pm

Do you use one or two 9 inch cake pans? Used one and had to increase the cooking time to almost 40 minutes for the middle to be cooked, but the edges are now very brown.

Barb
says:
March 23rd, 2019 at 12:47 am

I ,have a recipe for Italian Cream Cake that gets rave reviews. I had my first flub ever in 40 years when, exhausted, I fell asleep while the cake was in the oven and burned it to a black crisp around the edges. I decided to trim the edges off the 3 layers and try to salvage what was left. I went searching for an Italian Cream Cake Trifle and here I am. I’m excited to try this with my poor cake. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Mary
says:
December 16th, 2018 at 3:35 am

Hi, I’m not familiar with the ‘french instant vanilla pudding,’ what would you suggest I substitute with ? freshly made creme patisserie, also is it ok to replace ‘ whipped topping ‘ for fresh whipped cream .. thanks

1. Lovefoodies
  says:
  December 16th, 2018 at 7:28 am
  
  Hi Mary, yes, you can use Patisserie cream or custard.
  For the cream, use double or whipping fresh cream
  Hope that helps!
  
2. Debbie
  says:
  January 20th, 2019 at 10:02 pm
  
  The recipe calls for French vanilla pudding. It’s a flavor. Im sure regular vanilla would be ok to substitute. Cool whip has stabilizers so it holds up bettet in a trifle. Fresh whipped cream mught go flat too quickly.
  
  1. Barb
    says:
    February 6th, 2021 at 1:50 pm
    
    I always substitute real whipped cream for Cool Whip. Trifle doesn’t last long enough in our house to go flat! 😊
Lyn
says:
November 18th, 2018 at 8:03 am

Can I use normal cream and whip if so how much cream should I whip up.

Sandra Rudolph
says:
August 10th, 2018 at 3:46 am

Mary….(Lovefoodies). Thank you for you amazingly quick response. I appreciate your tips. Looking forward to making this trifle.

Sandra Rudolph
says:
August 7th, 2018 at 5:11 pm

I plan on making two trifle bowls of this to serve 24 people at our Italian Family Reunion. You said you can make this a couple of days ahead of time and assemble the day of serving. I loved your tips on how to store the cake so it doesn’t dry out. However, I wondered about the pudding. Do you advise making it that far in advance. I just wanted to double check.

1. Lovefoodies
  says:
  August 7th, 2018 at 5:49 pm
  
  Hi Sandra, your reunion sounds wonderful!
  For the pudding, if you cover the surface of it with plastic wrap (let the wrap sit directly on the pudding mix when it’s in a bowl) that will stop a skin from forming when it is chilled. When you’re ready to assemble, simply stir it to loosen a little and it should be fine. I wouldn’t make ahead any more than 2 days. Also, you could assemble the day before if you wished and kept chilled. At least all the flavors will come together and have time to soak into the cake pieces etc.
  Hope that helps and have a super reunion!
  
inez
says:
April 27th, 2018 at 7:23 pm

can you leave the capon cheese out of pudding mixture

Dawn Krisavage
says:
February 24th, 2018 at 2:40 am

Recipe say grease flour 9″ cake pan and further into recipe it says remove from pans ( plural) in the oven ow only used one pan… boy I hope that’s right dinner party tomorrow!! ?