Italian Cream Cake

As requested by a dear friend and my sister-in-law, here is my recipe for Italian Cream Cake. It is borrowed from Emeril Legasse, but there are small changes that I believe make all the difference!

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 1/2 cup shortening, room temperature
• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 eggs, separated and at room temperature
• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 2 cups shredded coconut
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting: (I would either double or one and a half this recipe to frost the whole cake)

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• powdered sugar, to taste (some people like cream cheese icing to taste cheesy, others like it sweet)
• 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and grease and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the shortening, butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping the bowl. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together onto a sheet of waxed or parchment paper twice. With the mixer on low speed, add the sifted ingredients in batches alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. I do this in three batches.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, and gently fold into the prepared batter. Add the coconut, pecans and vanilla and fold into the batter. Divide the batter among the 3 prepared cake pans and bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown and a tester comes out clean when inserted into the middle of each cake. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. When the cakes are completely cool, stack the layers with the frosting and frost the sides and top.

While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting. In a large bowl combine the cream cheese, butter and vanilla and, using an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy. Add the sifted powdered sugar and mix until thoroughly combined. Add the nuts and fold together. Keep refrigerated until you are ready to frost the cake.

Mixing...

This is how your beaters should look when the egg whites are stiff enough. They should slide out of the bowl in one large, foamy clump...

Fold gently...

Make sure not to overbake this cake, frost, and enjoy...

I sometimes top this cake with orange zest or mint leaves for decoration.

Make sure the shortening you use is clean. I once made this cake for Matt's family for Christmas, not realizing that Matt's dad uses the shortening to rub on the outside of potatoes before baking. Potato skin flavoring is very pungent and makes for a cake that does not taste light, fluffy, and delicious, but more like dirty dishwater or pencil shavings.