Italian Cream Cake may sound like something from Europe, but its origins are actually linked back to Texas. That's no surprise if you look at the ingredient list. This soft and tender three layer cake recipe calls for cream cheese, pecans, coconut and buttermilk, all commonly used in Southern desserts.
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Interestingly, the first known publishing of Italian Cream Cake was in Canada in 1913. It wasn't until 1937 when it appeared in the Plano News that it really took off. Refrigerators had replaced ice boxes around that time, making cream cheese a more popular baking ingredient. I guess everyone was just dying to make this cake, whose icing was similar to one made with Mascarpone, and thus given a more exciting name.
You don't see Italian Cream Cake very often on restaurant menus, though it is still popular in Texas and other states where they grow pecans. And by popular, I mean you are likely to see it at a potluck or perhaps on the menu of a local caterer.
Italian Cream Cake Ratios
This is the most common recipe, or at least most common in my many Texas cookbooks. It calls for a mixture of butter and shortening, unlike some versions which are made with all butter. Both versions are good, but the shortening lightens the crumb and the layers bake up a little fluffier. Not that you can tell by my photos! I took these back when I first started making the cake and didn't use a scale or a stand mixer.
Measurements for this cake are usually 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, a combination of ½ cup shortening and ½ cup butter, 5 eggs and a cup of buttermilk. It is extremely moist, but not mushy. It's dense and light at the same time, and the layers usually bake up flat. This helpful when you are building a tall cake. The catch is the layers are also very light and thin. If the cake ingredients aren't perfectly balanced or mixed correctly, the cakes may sink in the middle.
Even though I didn't master it the first time, this is pretty much the only version of the cake I make, though I scale it down and make it in a six inch cake pan. I also like Cooking Light’s, which is excellent for a light cake.
If you want to try a smaller Italian Cream Cake, here's a link to a six inch Mini Italian Cream Cake recipe.
Recipe
Italian Cream Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
- 5 large eggs separated and at room temperature
- 4 oz unsalted butter plus ¼ teaspoon salt (114 grams)
- ½ cup shortening (96 grams)
- 2 cups granulated sugar (400 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups all purpose flour (280 grams)
- ⅔ cup pecans toasted and chopped
- 1 cup angel flake sweetened coconut (100 grams)
Frosting:
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, plus ¼ teaspoon salt (omit if using salted)
- 12 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 5 ½ cups powdered sugar, sift after measuring (1 ½ pounds)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) round cake pans.
- Have all ingredients measured and ready to go.
- Stir baking soda into buttermilk and set aside.
- Cream butter, salt (if using) sugar and shortening in bowl of stand mixer for 3-5 minutes. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping the bowl often. Beat in vanilla. By hand or using lowest speed of mixer, add flour and buttermilk mixture alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour.
- In a second mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks just barely start to form, then fold into the batter. When egg whites are incorporated, fold in the pecans and coconut. Batter should be thick and light. Scrape into prepared pans dividing evenly.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until cake tests done. Let cool in pans on rack for about 10 minutes, then turn from pans and cool completely.
Frosting
- Cream the butter and cream cheese. Add vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar. Beat until well blended. Frost the cakes and stack. Garnish with pecans.
- This recipe makes enough frosting to frost the cake generously and still have a little extra for decorating.
Sonya says
Cool! I also love that size for a small gathering of people....and the cakes are just so cute 🙂 Happy baking!
Anna says
Thanks! I have a couple of 6 inch cake pans too and should probably make a small one.
Sonya says
I love Italian Cream Cake! I use the recipe from Cook's Country, which does use baking powder (but also uses the butter/shortening like your recipe, but much more butter:shortening). And maybe we've already discussed this, but the mini cake pans are great - I use two 6-inch rounds by Fat Daddio from Amazon, and they work great for making cakes just for the two of us. I divide any recipe calling for two 9-inch rounds or a 13x9 pan by two, and I've never had a problem with the cake not turning out yummy. Sometimes I'll even divide a recipe by four and split the cake to make an even smaller version, because even a 6-inch layer cake lasts for a while in small portions! Anyway, your Italian Cream Cake looks so delicious - wish I could reach through the screen and swipe some of that frosting 🙂
Dainie Tidwell says
I have been making this since 1960's. Received this from friend from Huntsville, Al and Alexander City-from a resturant probably since her inlaws were in the business. It is a grand old Alabama recipe!
Anna says
Hi Erika,
Thanks! Your English is excellent.
Erika says
Hi! I just found out your blog!! Love it! I know I'm a little bit late to leave a comment foor this recipe, but I just want you to know (just to give you an answer) that Italian Cream Cake does not exist here in Italy...sorry, I forgot...I'm Italian (precisely from Vicenza, a small city which is located in Northern Italy). So, I think your suggestion was right...maybe it has been called liked this as a tribute to Italian desserts.
Congrats again for your blog and sorry for my english (surely I messed up at some point 🙂 )
Anna says
Hi Olga,
I can't wait to see your photo! Cream cheese frosting is tricky because if it's hot, it does need to be refrigerated. However, the refrigerator does change the texture somewhat. Either way, it will still taste good. Just keep the finished cake in the refrigerator since it's so hot. Also, thanks for letting me know about the vanilla. I added that line about when to put it in.
Olga says
Hi Anna...
I did it. Last night i baked it,.. it was really nice. It smelled so good and felt soo smooth when i was folding in the flour and buttermilk....different then anything i did before..i haven´t tried it yet..the gathering is tonight i will take a picture of it,i would like to show you. :).. The frosting is my best one so far..i did it last night and put it in the fridge .. this morning i assembled the cake and it felt like ice cream.. it is hot here so i had to put it in the fridge when i was half way.. then put it out and finished putting the frosting because it was dropping.....then no problem..i put pecans like you did and a bit of coconut on the side so it would cover my bad frosting skill..jij.. i sooo want to try it ..i bet it will be good.. Thank you for the recipe.. ..
PS. by the way.. the recipe doesnt say when to put the vanilla on the cake.. i realized and then put it at the very end i hope it is ok.... just wanted to let you know..
Have a nice dayy!!!.. i send you my pic :p
Olga
Anna says
Go with Italian Cream Cake!
Anonymous says
OMG .. this looks soooo sooo good... is this changing my mind about the jelly roll?.. omg :o.. this cake looks so beautiful.. and good..
Anna says
Congratulations on your marriage! I am sure you will enjoy this cake :).
Sissy says
I am getting married in one week! I will be using this as our wedding cake I'm going to make it 3 or 4 stacks tall. We are having a small family wedding and I could'nt see paying 100.00 dollars for a big wedding cake, when this one will be wonderful and we will place a letter for our last name on the top of the cake for the topper.
Kim says
Anna,
This looks delightful. I make a cannoli cake that is also seriously delicious. The recipe is from a bakery that also sells cannoli cake, Sweet Maria's in Waterbury, CT. Sweet Maria's, Maria Sanchez has a collection of wonderful cookie and cake cookbooks. The cannoli cake is a 3 layer using a tube pan and it does use ricotta cheese, and yummy mini chocolate chips.
Lucy says
Oh, I have one with oil that I came across. I know it's not the recipe I'm trying to replace, but it sounds pretty good so I might try it if this replacement BH&Gs one doesn't please my family. 😉
Lucy says
Okay, I'm coming late into this whole thing, but - my daughter & I were having lunch at a restaurant today & Italian Creme Cake was listed on the dessert menu. I told her to pass it up because I had a recipe at home I could make. Except when I got home I discovered I'd thrown it out. Seems I'd forgotten how the last time I made it a few years ago, no one ate it (except me), so I got mad & threw the recipe away. ANYway...in trying to find the recipe again, or a similar one, on the Web (because now my daughter says she'll eat it), I came across this recipe which sounds like it, & it uses baking powder:
ITALIAN CREME CAKE
1-3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. bkg. pwd.
1/4 tsp. bkg. soda
1/2 c. butter (no substitutes)
1/3 c. shortening
1-3/4 c. sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. buttermilk or sour milk
1 3-1/2 oz. can flaked coconut
1 c. chopped pecans
4 egg whites
Frosting: In a bowl beat: 12 oz. cream cheese, softened; 6 Tbls. butter, softened; 1-1/2 tsps. vanilla. Gradually add 6 c. sifted pwd. sugar; stir in 1/2 c. chopped pecans.
Grease & flour 3 8x1-1/2 round pans. Combine flour, bkg. pwd & bkg soda; set aside. In mixing bowl beat butter & shortening on med to high for 30 seconds. Add sugar, beat until fluffy. Add egg yolks & vanilla, beat on med until combined. Add flour mixture & buttermilk alternately to egg mixture, beating on low after each addn until just combined. Fold in coconut & pecans. In small bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold about 1/3 into cake batter to lighten. Then fold in remaining. Spread batter evenly in pans. Bake in 350 oven for 25-30 min or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 min; remove from pans & cool thoroughly. Frost and assemble layer cake. Chill until serving time.
I believe this is a Better Homes & Garden recipe. It's gotten rave reviews everywhere I've seen it, including the site where I found it. It has the baking powder in it that you mentioned; that's why I'm submitting it to you.
Janice says
Anna,
I could be totally off base but have always thought Italian Cream and Hummingbird to be closely related Southern cakes.
I was thinking about you today as I looked at Anguilla pics.
Louise says
Anna, The cassata I know is made from a homemade sponge cake and doesn't use creme de cacao. I'll have to dig out the recipe. I owe you a couple others too. 🙂
Anna says
There's a cassata recipe on my radar, but it calls for creme de cacao and I haven't felt like spending the money on the booze or the ladyfingers. But it does sound good and the recipe happens to be from Paula Deen.
It also makes a huge cassata. I do make cannoli fairly often, though.
Louise and Teresa, if either of you have a cassata recipe to recommend, let me know.
TG says
Cassata i love. Italian cream cake i hate. Maybe i just haven't had a good one. (In my book, there is no good one, haha.)
I grew up near an Italian neighborhood in the Northeast and there was no "authentic" original of this cake as I see it here in Texas; I think your theory (about its origin) makes perfect sense.
Louise says
Have you ever made or eaten cassata? It's definitely Italian and a tender cake with a cannoli type of filling. It doesn't have coconut or nuts but a trace of candied fruit.
Anna says
Thanks Mary! I looked at that one, but I thought it had too much fat. Not that I'm counting fat, but the proportions seemed like overkill. The recipe calls for 4 oz butter plus 8 oz oil. That's 12 oz fat. And on top of that, the recipe had only 1 cup of sugar and the same amount of eggs and flour, so that's even less sugar to buffer all that fat. I'm sure people liked it, though.
Mary M says
Pioneer Woman did one last year. I made it and it was delish- moist, yet fluffy- maybe the coconut?
Her recipe uses oil instead of shortening, plus butter.
Daisy Doodles says
I love Italian Cream Cake! We had it as our wedding cake and I have had it as my bday cake every year since I was 16 ( I am a weirdo!).
I will have to ask my boss if they actually have Italian Cream Cake in Italy!
Anna says
Dawn, I don't go to Sur la Table very often (there's not one nearby) and I'm not familiar with those fancy squeeze bottles. They look fine. I'd have to try them out to know. I just use decorating bags and tips.
vanillasugar says
wow that cake looks so moist. i would love to add amaretto to the frosting you know? and i just thought of that because of seeing your first post.
also, do you know if these are good? jenny at picky palate said they were good, but just curious if you have them/ like them or even what you use for versatile cake deocrating.
here's the link: http://www.surlatable.com/product/kitchenbakeware/decorating+tools+%26+sets/kuhn+rikon+dual-chamber+squeezable+decorating+kit.do?sortby=ourPicks
Michelle says
Whoa, this is eerie. I was just looking up Italian Cream Cakes just yesterday. I go here and find that you made one! Must've been on same baking vibe. LOL. You're awesome!
Kath says
Anna -- That's the one! It is awesome. Even better the next day. I have used a mix of mascarpone and cream cheese in the frosting when I have it on hand. Doesn't make a huge differnce becasue of the amaretto.
p.s. -- heard you on the radio yesterday morning and chuckled.
Window On The Prairie says
Looks so delish! I've never made this type of cake, but will give it a try!
Sue says
Mmmm! A little amaretto couldn't hurt anything!!
Anna says
Here's one with Amaretto. I'm not sure if it's the one from the Statesman because I found it listed without a source on one of those big recipe aggregator sites, but it's something like this.
1 cup butter, softened -- probably used salted in original, adjust accordingly
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided (mix some of it with the egg whites)
5 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp coconut extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup Amaretto
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
Frosting
3/4 cup butter (probably used salted)
12 ounce cream cheese
1/4 cup Amaretto
4-5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Use same techniques as above but bake at 325 for about 35-40 minutes. For the egg whites, beat about 1/2 cup of the sugar into the egg whites, then fold the sugared egg whites into the batter.
I'll post original recipe if I can get the actual Statesman version, but this is probably it.
Jennifer says
Wow, that looks great. I've never had (or made) an Italian Cream Cake, either. I'll have to follow Pam's suggestion of using frozen shredded coconut to see if I could get my coconut-haters to eat it.
Pam says
I make this cake quite often, and I use frozen shredded coconut instead of the sweetened flaked version. It melts into the batter so that you get the flavor but don't see individual flakes of coconut, which makes it possible for my coconut hating husband to eat it and love it. He doesn't even know there is any coconut in the cake -- and I'll never tell him! I think it also helps the cake to remain very moist, even after two or three days have passed.
Anna says
Kath, thanks for the hot tip! I'll see if I can find it. I know the Statesman has published more than one version of the recipe, so the Amaretto is key.
Kath says
The best Italian Creme Cake recipe I have ever used came from the Austin American Statesman several years ago. I think it was the winner of their Christmas cake contest. I've tried dozens of different Italian creme cake recipes and the one from the Statesman is by far the best. It may be the amaretto in the cake and the frosting! 🙂 It is by far my most requested cake from friends for weddings and other big events. I couldn't find the recipe online to post -- but will do so after I get home tonight. Happy baking!
Anna says
Joanne, I didn't think there was a true Italian version. If there is, could you point me to it? I've never seen a version of this cake using ricotta, but that would be neat if there was one.
Jeanette says
This looks so delicious! I am interested to know which recipe ends up being your favorite (if you make others that is). Thanks~
Joanne says
I think the true Italian version of this makes a cannoli cream filling for the insides but this sounds delicious either way!
Anna says
Chris, this one's light, but I wouldn't call it fluffy. It's more of a tender cake.
Fallon, it's been years since I made the Cooking Light cake, but I remember liking it very much. I may make it again soon -- just as soon as we eat (or share) this one. I'm pretty sure the recipe is on http://www.myrecipes.com. If not, shoot me an email and I'll type it for you.
Sue, the original is from Southern Living so you probably have it or could find it on http://www.myrecipes.com.
Sue, thanks! Maybe I will just send it along.
Pam, let me know how it goes and which recipe you end up using.
Pam Shank says
this looks soooo good. I love this cake and I always forget about it when I am trying to decide what cake to make. I have got to make it today. Thanks
Sue says
I don't think I've ever had this cake. It sounds wonderful! I bet it would disappear within minutes if you sent it to work with Todd or took it to the construction crew. I doubt people at either venue would mind that you've already cut into it. With only two of us here I understand about having a lot of one thing around even if it's something you love.
sue says
I love this cake. It was our wedding cake almost twenty years ago.
I'm going to try to make it this weekend! I am almost positive 'Southern Living' cookbook has it.
Fallon says
That looks soo good! Have you posted the cooking light recipe on your blog?
Chris Mower says
I've never heard of this cake before, but it looks scrumptious! It looks really moist and fluffy too. My favorite cakes are the moist and fluffy ones.