Why Youll Love This Italian Cream Cake Recipe:
- GREAT FOR HOLIDAYS: Obviously this cake can be enjoyed at any time, but its perfect for occasions. It makes a delicious Easter cake, and its great for Christmas too.
- EASY: This dessert is made from scratch, but its super simple to make with no advanced techniques.
- INDULGENT: There is nothing shy about this cake! You are sure to impress with this recipe!
How To Make Homemade Italian Cake:
- Preheat oven to 325f degrees.
- Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray
- In a large mixing bowl mix together butter, shortening and sugar until smooth.
- Add in egg yolks one at a time, mixing with an electric hand mixer or stand mixer after each egg, until blended.
- In a small bowl mix together buttermilk, vanilla extract and baking soda.
- Add ½ a cup of flour at a time, and ¼ of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat this until flour is added and buttermilk mixture is added. Blend well with hand mixer or stand mixer each time you add an ingredient.
- Gently stir in the pecans, sweetened coconut, and beaten egg whites, until well blended. Pour batter into prepared baking dish.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes.
- Reduce heat to 225f degrees, and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely.
For the frosting:
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, stir together butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and ¼ of the box of powdered sugar.
- Mix on high until smooth and add more powdered sugar. Continue this process until the box is empty and frosting is completely smooth.
- Frost the cooled cake and top with coconut and pecans. And serve. Any leftovers need to be refrigerated
Making The Pastry Creams
The process to make the vanilla and the chocolate pastry creams is quite similar and so to save time and space, only the chocolate version is shown.
Keep in mind that youll repeat this process again and omit the cocoa powder and add vanilla extra instead for your second filling.
The ingredients :
- Note that the heavy cream gets whipped separately and is added to the cream AFTER the pastry cream has been cooked and cooled. I do this just before Im getting ready to assemble the cake.
- In a small bowl, add egg yolks and cornstarch. Whisk to blend and set aside
- In a medium saucepan, add milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla or chocolate heat until small bubbles form and remove from heat.
- Temper eggs by adding small amounts of the hot milk mixture, a little at a time, while whisking very QUICKLY to prevent the eggs from curdling.
- After all of the milk mixture has been added into the eggs/cornstarch, return everything to the saucepan and cook over medium heat and stir constantly until thickened.
- The mixture can thickens quickly !! Stir fast and furious with whisk!
- Keep stirring until you see that it has stopped thickening or the thickening has slowed down.
- Cool the pastry cream and refrigerate until ready to use .
- When ready to assemble the cake, whip heavy cream until soft peaks form and then fold together with cooled pastry cream .
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Can I Freeze This Cake
Yes, you can absolutely freeze Italian Cream Cake! When freezing cakes, I like to place the cake in the freezer uncovered just until the frosting is solid and then I wrap the cake with a layer or two of plastic wrap and foil. This way, the frosting doesnt stick to the plastic wrap and your cake will look fabulous when youre ready to eat it.
Italian Cream Cake Cookie Bars
Italian Cream Cake Cookie Bars begin with cake mix and taste just like classic Italian Cream Cake but in cookie form!
With a homemade cream cheese frosting, topped with pecans, you can’t go wrong with these little delights.
One of our favorite desserts for a crowd or keep them for yourself – freezer friendly!
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How To Make Italian Cream Cake With Cream Cheese Pecan Frosting
Be sure to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!
So What Is An Italian Cream Cake
Italian cream cake is an elegant, show-stopping, moist 3-layer cake.The cakes rich layers are studded with chopped pecans and coconut.The moistness comes from the coconut, and cooking oil.The cake is topped with a rich, finger-licking-good whipped cream cheese frosting with more chopped pecans and delicate shredded coconut.
Recommended Reading: Baskin Robbins Pralines And Cream Cake
Dawn 8 Italian Creme Cake
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How To Make Cake Mix Cookie Bars
Mix the cake mix, butter, and milk until well blended. Stir in the pecans and coconut.
Spread into a greased and floured 9″ x 13″ pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool completely.
Make the cream cheese frosting and spread on top of cookie bars. Garnish with additional chopped pecans. Cut into bars or squares.
I have a Google Web Story for how to make Italian Cake Cookie Bars.
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How To Properly Beat An Egg White
Egg whites in a chilled bowl.
How To Frost A 3
Frosting a layer cake isn’t hard. Follow these tips below to make your cake presentable!
Spread about 1/4 of the frosting on the bottom layer that’s been placed on a cake, flat side down.
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How To Make The Sponge Cake
- Combine flour with salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a standing mixer, whip the egg whites on medium-low speed until foamy and then add the cream of tartar and continue mixing until the whites become opaque .
- Add ½ cup sugar slowly to the side of the bowl and increase the speed of the mixer until soft but not stiff peaks form. Scrape the contents to another bowl and set aside.
- Using the same bowl, which is now empty, add the egg yolks and whip at high speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and the mixture ribbons when the beaters are raised
- Slowly add the remaining sugar , cold water, and vanilla into the egg yolks and mix until combined on low speed
- Sift the flour onto the egg yolk mixture in two additions, and stir gently with large spatula to combine.
- Gently but thoroughly fold in the whipped egg whites
- Transfer mixture to prepared pans, smooth tops if needed, and bake for about 20 minutes until cooked through.
Best 6 Bakeries Delivering Italian Cream Cake Nationwide
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Italian cream cake or sometimes called Italian wedding cake, is a unique combination of moist vanilla sponge cake, coconut, pecans and creamy whipped frosting.
It can be quite a task to make on your own, so if you would feel better leaving the baking to the pros, there are several excellent bakeries who specialize in authentic Italian cream cake that can help.
In A Rush?Best overall Expertly made Most WOW& AuthenticDifferentnutless alternative
Every bakery has a slightly different version of Italian cream cake, but they all offer delivery nationwide to almost any US doorstep.
See the best bakeries that deliver Italian cream cake in this epic roundup of the best of the best.
Iron chef Cat Cora is offering you the chance to try her special Italian cream cake whos recipe was passed down from her beloved Grandma.
This cake was so special that it was served at all types of events and celebrations, like anniversaries, weddings, funerals, baptisms and.of course birthdays.
Chef Cora remembers that her Grandma made, a moist, silky cake, with a frosting so luscious and creamy that you couldnt keep your fingers away from it no matter how hard you tried.
BUY: Check out more information about Chef Cat Cora and order your own Italian cream cake for delivery on her Gold Belly page here.
Soulfully Yours Bakery makes some really nice cakes.
- 5-inch
- 7-inch
- 8-inch
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Assembling And Decorating The Cake
- Place a layer of sponge cake on cake plate or cake board if you have one.
- Soak cake layer with of the rum syrup. .
- Top with all of the vanilla pastry cream.
- Place another layer of sponge on top of vanilla pastry cream.
- Soak cake layer with of the rum syrup.
- Top with all of the chocolate pastry cream.
- Place the final layer of sponge cake on top of the chocolate pastry cream.
- Soak cake layer with the rest of the rum syrup.
- Apply frosting to top and sides of cake.
- Add nuts to the sides of cake and decorate top as you please!
Make The Cake Layers:
Prepare.Preheat your oven to 350°F, then grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.
Combine the dry ingredients.Whisk the flour and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
Mix the wet ingredients.Use an electric mixer on medium speed to beat the butter until fluffy, then add the sugar and continue beating until you have a light, airy mixture. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract.
Combine wet and dry ingredients.Turn the mixer speed to low, then add the flour mixture in three portions, alternating with two portions of the buttermilk. Fold in the coconut.
Whip the egg whites.In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the batter.
Bake and cool.Divide the cake batter among the pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the cakes from the pans and let them finish cooling on the racks.
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What Makes Them Special
These Italian Cream Cake Bars have all the flavor of the familiar Italian cream cake recipe without all the steps. Just make, bake, frost, and cut into squares or bars! Cake mix cookie bars are simple to make yet special enough for holidays and parties.
The batter consists of yellow cake mix, pecans, coconut, butter, and milk. These ingredients form a chewy, cookie-like crust.
After cooling, spread the homemade cream cheese frosting on top. These bars remind me of the day we were married because we had an Italian Wedding Cake at our reception. Awww!
Tips For Baking Italian Cream Cakes:
- It makes a great holiday or special occasion cake.
- A big bonus is that Italian Cream Cake is even better on the second day after baking it.
- This makes it perfect for a make-ahead dessert that frees up your time to focus on other things the day of your gathering. Thats always such a big plus for me!
- Bring the butter and cream cheese to room temperature and softened before using it.
- When beating the egg whites, use the highest setting on your hand-held blender. It takes almost 8 minutes for the cream to form soft peaks.
- GENTLY FOLD, dont stir the egg white / tartar into the cake batter. This is what gives the cake such lightness.
- USE PARCHMENT paper on top of the buttered and floured baking pans. Without parchment paper, this cake sticks any way even with butter and flour. So use parchment paper.
- Italian Cream Cake is so tender and so moist that it has a tendency to crumble. So be very careful removing the baked layers out of the pans.
- Store Italian Cream Cake in the fridge, covered.
- Store for 3 4 days in the fridge.
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