Friday Bake Along: Italian Cream Cake

Happy Friday! Thought I would try to revise Friday Bake Along.  Back in the “olden days” when I had a blog called NotQuiteJuneCleaver I did a lot of cool things (for the times).  Then Life happened and the blog fell by the wayside.  But you know, why not give it another go?  It used to be cathartic to blog almost daily.  That’s probably not going to happen. I am far less disciplined now.  But I will do my best – which is not what it used to be.  [gs_pinterest user=”JustPlainSusan59″ board=”” count=”10″ theme=”gs_pin_theme1″ cols=”3″] Print

Italian Cream Cake

This is one of our favorite cakes.  I hope you will try it if it’s new to you. If not maybe it will remind you to make one soon!

  • Author: JustPlainSusan

Ingredients

Scale

For the Cake:

  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 2 cups all purpose flour or 2 cups plus 2 TBSP cake flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 2 cups coconut
  • 5 egg whites, beaten stiff
  • 1 cup buttermilk

Frosting:

  • 8 ounces cream cheese at room temp
  • 1/2 cup butter at room temp
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 pound confectioners sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 3 (9 inch) or 4 (8 inch) round cake pans.

Cake:

Cream sugar, butter and shortening. Add egg yolks and mix well. Mix flour, salt, baking soda in a bowl. Add this flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Mix well. Add vanilla, pecans and coconut. Mix well. Then gently fold in egg whites. Divide evenly between your pans. Bake for 25-35 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes then turn out on a rack to finish cooling. Frost when completely cool.

Frosting:

Beat cream cheese and butter until light. Add vanilla and mix well. Add confectioners sugar a cup at the time and when all in incorporated beat on high until light and spreading consistency.

Did you make this recipe?

Share a photo and tag me — I can't wait to see what you've made!

 

Friday Baking: Butter Pecan Cookies

I thought I would change things up a bit.  Here is a recipe from my childhood. One of my very favorite cookies in the world.  It reminds me of my mama’s kitchen – and my mama.

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2 cups brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 2-½ cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat your oven to 350ºF.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix until combined.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the butter/sugar/egg mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in the pecans evenly.

Drop by teaspoon onto a pan lined with parchment. Bake at 350ºF for 9-10 minutes. You just want to see a little golden brown around the edges at the bottom, and then remove them immediately to cool.