Grandma Barb’s Italian Cream Cake
Watch me make this Italian Cream Cake from start to finish!!
You can ALWAYS find an Italian cream cake at my family holiday shindigs. I think everyone in my family has my grandma Barb’s highly requested Italian Cream cake recipe (and now so do you, welcome to the family!) so it really doesn’t matter who brings it. This recipe is fail-proof and always comes out tasting fabulous!
The cake itself is soft and moist with a super yummy vanilla-coconut-butter flavor. The frosting is a regular cream cheese frosting with coconut and pecans added to compliment the Italian cream cake. It’s delish and even if you don’t like coconut, I bet you’ll still love this cake!
My husband is such a coconut hater. Â He likes the taste of coconut but not the texture so I make sure to use finely shredded coconut and then process it to break up the flak, even more, when I’m making it for him.
Italian cream cake is such a lovely, elegant, and delicious cake. It’s so easy to make that there is really no reason to wait until a special occasion too. Make it today, just because.
Get the Recipe: Italian Cream Cake
Ingredients
- CAKE
- 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups white sugar
- 5 eggs, separated (room temperature)
- 3 teaspoons real vanilla extract
- 2 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 cup real buttermilk, (room temperature)
- 1 1/2 cup finely shredded sweetened coconut flakes
- FROSTING
- 16 oz cream cheese, room tempt.
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 4 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups finely shredded sweetened coconut
- 1 1/2 cups pecans pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325.
- Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.
- In a large bowl cream together shortening, butter and sugar.
- Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- In a separate bowl combine flour and baking soda.
- Alternate adding the buttermilk and flour into the sugar mixture. Starting and ending with the buttermilk. Be sure to mix well after each addition.
- Stir in vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
- Fold egg whites into batter.
- Stir in coconuts and pecans.
- Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 25-27 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cakes sit in pans for 5 minutes before removing from pans and placing on a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Make the frosting by creaming together cream cheese, butter, vanilla and confectioners sugar.
- Stir in coconut and pecans.
- Frost & decorate cooled cake layers as desired (see video to see how I frost and decorated)
Video
Notes
Store in the fridge. Remove and let come to room temperature before serving.
I found your recipe on the internet today so I decided I would try it and I did this is a moist cake I Norman don’t do good on some cakes but this one turn out real good love it
Hi, in your list of ingredients, you list baking soda. Do you mean baking soda or baking powder?
OMG!! Miss DIVA… I have used quite a few of your recipes since stumbling upon your site a couple of years ago and LET ME TELL YOU – your grandma sounds a lot like my grandma. Grandma can throw DOWN but she passed away in the 80’s when I was 13 so I did not have any of her recipes. Momma can burn too but she is not a baker so I often joke with my her asking “how did you let grandma take all those dessert recipes with her?” Now I have found you! Your fluffy pancake recipe is deeee-lish girl.
I made this Italian Cream cake for Thanksgiving and it was a hit! I did not have butter flavored
Crisco so I used the regular crisco but it still turned out great. I do not like pecans or walnuts in my desserts so I threw the pecans in my blender along with the coconuts to chop them real fine.
My family talked about that cake for days after Thanksgiving. My sis in law said it was even better a few days later. I am making it again today for my neighborhood holiday party tonight.
Can I substitute coconut flavor instead of coconut? I’m like your husband no coconut for me.
Hi, I am from the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. We do not have butter flavored shortening available here,therefore my question is can I use regular butter or margarine since that is what is available? Thank you.
Yes i make this Dame cake ugh can use 1/2 c. Butter and 1/2 c. Vegetable oil. Or regular shortening. It does not have to be butter flavor
Yes i make this Dame cake ugh can use 1/2 c. Butter and 1/2 c. Vegetable oil. Or regular shortening. It does not have to be butter flavor
I have all the ingredients to make the Italian cream cake but my butter is salted. Will this make a difference?
hi monique! I’m veronique from the beautiful island of Mauritius, i would like to to know if i can put one cup of sugar instead of two.