Italian Cream Cake is a delicious tender made from scratch cake bursting with coconut, vanilla, and pecans, with cream cheese frosting. A perfect homemade celebration cake.

Italian Cream Cake is a delicious tender made from scratch cake bursting with coconut, vanilla, and pecans, with cream cheese frosting. A perfect celebration cake

Oh boy! Here we have a wonderfully amazing Italian Cream Cake recipe for you. This delicious cake is all made from scratch and uses ingredients that most of you will already have in your store cupboard. It is by far the easiest and best Italian Cream cake recipe, giving you moist, tender slices of cake perfect for any occasion.

Is Italian Cream Cake from Italy?

For those of you around the world who are not familiar with an Italian Cream Cake, or creme cake, it is thought to originate in Texas, USA, despite having the name Italian in it! So it's more of a Southern cake than an Italian one. That's confusing! 

What is an Italian Cream Cake?

The cake itself is traditionally made up of three layers, with coconut and pecan nuts, and then filled in between and all over the outside with a lovely coconut cream cheese frosting.

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Italian Cream Cake is a delicious tender made from scratch cake bursting with coconut, vanilla, and pecans, with cream cheese frosting. A perfect celebration cake

Should an Italian Cream Cake be refrigerated?

The answer is yes! We always advise, if a cake uses dairy ingredients and cream cheese (such as for the frosting), you should refrigerate and then take out to room temperature about 2 hours before serving. 

An Italian Cream Cake is extremely popular for celebrations such as birthdays and over the holidays. At Christmas time, this looks fabulous and festive because of the frosting all over the cake. You can leave the cake as it is with the white frosting or make it even more festive for Christmas by adding a few edible Christmas decorations to it if you wish! 

As for the recipe, this Italian Creme Cake is all homemade and is a very easy recipe. Whilst made from scratch, it's not a hard recipe at all. Follow the instructions below and you'll find it is an easy recipe. The only hard part is being patient for it to bake so you can eat a slice! 

Be sure to check out Sally's Italian Cream Cake Trifle too! It's always so popular, especially during Thanksgiving and Christmas time.

This delicious recipe has been generously shared by our Lovefoodies friend Sally.
Sally tells me it's a family favorite, easy to make, and has great flavor and a soft velvety texture. Thanks very much, Sally for sharing. So let's get straight to the recipe and see how we make this popular Italian Creme Cake. Please enjoy!


Recipe by Sally Hall

Prep Time

20 - 30 minutes

Cook Time

25 minutes

Yield

10 - 12 Persons

Ingredients

The Cake

½ cup room temperature Butter
½ cup butter flavored shortening (or use butter)
2 ¼ cups Sugar
6 medium Eggs
¾ teaspoon Baking Soda
dash of Salt
2 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
1 cup Buttermilk *
1 ½ cups Coconut shredded
1 cup chopped Pecans
1 ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

*if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, take 1 cup whole milk and add 1 teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice

The Frosting

½ cup butter, room temperature
1 x 8-ounce package Cream Cheese, room temperature
1 x 16-ounce container Cream Cheese Frosting *
3+ cups Powdered Sugar (depends on how sweet you like it)
1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
½ cup pecans, finely crushed (optional)
½ cup Shredded Coconut (optional)

*If you are unable to get Cream Cheese frosting, triple the butter and cream cheese quantities so you have 1 ½ cups butter and 24 oz cream cheese.

Instructions

Make the cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour three 9 inch cake pans.

Italian Cream Cake, grease and flour pan

2. Cream butter and butter flavored shortening until smooth. Add sugar and mix well.

Creaming butter and sugar

3. Add eggs one at a time, just until the yellow disappears. Mix for about 30 seconds more.

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

5. Then add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture. Mix well.

Now add ½ cup 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.

Adding flour to cake batter

6. Stir in the remaining ingredients, coconut and pecans

7. Pour evenly into the 3 greased and floured cake pans.

8. Bake at 350º for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and remove from pans. Let cool completely before frosting.

Make the Frosting

Italian Cream Cake is a delicious tender made from scratch cake bursting with coconut, vanilla, and pecans, with cream cheese frosting. A perfect celebration cake

9. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth.

10. Add the pre-packaged frosting, mix well. (This combination has a better consistency for this cake.)

11. Add the vanilla and mix well.

12. Gradually add the powdered sugar mixing on low to medium until you get the consistency that you desire. Add the crushed pecans and coconut here if you choose to do so.

Build the Cake

13. Place one cake on the plate then add some of the frosting, spread evenly, then add the next cake layer, spread frosting on top of the second cake and add the final cake layer. Then use the remaining frosting to completely cover the cake.

Note : Best if made the day before and kept refrigerated until ready to slice and serve.

Italian Cream Cake is a delicious tender made from scratch cake bursting with coconut, vanilla, and pecans, with cream cheese frosting. A perfect celebration cake

Recipe Card

Italian Cream Cake is a delicious tender made from scratch cake bursting with coconut, vanilla, and pecans, with cream cheese frosting. A perfect celebration cake

Italian Cream Cake

Yield: 10 - 12
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes

Italian Cream Cake is a delicious tender made from scratch cake bursting with coconut, vanilla, and pecans, with cream cheese frosting. A perfect celebration cake

Ingredients

The Cake:

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

The Frosting:

  • ½ cup butter, room temperature
  • 1-ounce x 8 package Cream Cheese, room temperature
  • 1-ounce x 16 container Cream Cheese Frosting *****
  • 3 cups + Powdered Sugar, depends on how sweet you like it
  • 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
  • ½ cup Shredded Coconut, optional
  • ½ cup Finely chopped pecans, optional

Instructions

Make the cake:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour three 9 inch cake pans.
  2. Cream butter and butter flavored shortening until smooth. Add sugar and mix well.
  3. Add eggs one at a time, just until the yellow disappears. Mix for about 30 seconds more.
  4. Combine flour, baking soda and dash of salt. Set aside.
  5. Add ⅓ of the flour mixture (above) to the creamed mixture. Mix well. Now add ½ cup 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.
  6. Stir in the remaining ingredients, coconut and pecans
  7. Pour evenly into the 3 greased and floured cake pans.
  8. Bake at 350º for 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and remove from pans. Let cool completely before frosting.

Make the Frosting:

  1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth.
  2. Add the pre-packaged frosting, mix well. (This combination has a better consistency for this cake.)
  3. Add the vanilla and mix well.
  4. Gradually add the powdered sugar mixing on low to medium until you get the consistency that you desire. Add the pecans and coconut here if you choose to do so.

Build the Cake:

  1. Place one cake on the plate then add some of the frosting, spread evenly, then add the next cake layer, spread frosting on top of the second cake and add the final cake layer. Then use the remaining frosting to completely cover the cake.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1076Total Fat: 65gSaturated Fat: 34gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 26gCholesterol: 206mgSodium: 623mgCarbohydrates: 115gFiber: 4gSugar: 89gProtein: 12g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate

Did you make this recipe?

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Celebration Cakes

Here's a great selection of celebration cakes perfect for a party!

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