Everybody needs a go-to classic Italian Cream Cake recipe! We have the perfect recipe for you, and it is DELICIOUS!
There's just nothing better than the combination of coconut, pecans, and cream cheese frosting!
Table of Contents
Why we Love It
There are so many reasons to love this Italian Cream Cake recipe. Here are just a few:
- Amazing flavor from pecans and coconut.
- Wonderfully light texture thanks to the whipped egg whites in the cake batter.
- Classic cakes like Italian Cream Cake always feel extra special, and make the perfect birthday cake recipes, holiday cakes, more! (We even have a doctored cake mix version: Italian Cream Bundt Cake).
How to Make Italian Cream Cake
**You can find the full, printable Italian Cream Cake recipe a little further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- Preheat the oven and grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans. We like to also line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.
- Butter: Mix butter at medium speed until smooth using an electric mixer (fitted with a paddle attachment if using a stand mixer).
- Butter & Sugar: Gradually add sugar, beating on medium speed 4 to 5 minutes.
- Egg Yolks: Add room temperature egg yolks, one at a time, mixing after each addition until the yellow of the yolk is blended. Then, add the vanilla extract.
- Flour Mixture: In a separate bowl, add flour, baking soda, and salt, whisk at least 30 seconds to blend.
- Dry and Wet Ingredients: With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture (that is 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 additions of buttermilk) Mix until just blended.
- Pecans and Coconut: Then fold in the pecans and coconut until well combined.
- Beat the Egg Whites and Fold into Batter Beat egg whites at high speed until stiff peaks form. Using a spatula or spoon, gently fold into batter.
- Fill the Pans: Spoon batter into three 8 or 9″ round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean, or the center of the cake springs back when lightly touched.
Cool the cake layers (we often place them on a wire rack, still in the pans) and turn out after about 10 minutes.
Assembling the Italian Cream Cake
Now that the Italian Cream Cake layers have cooled completely, it is time to put it all together.
To assemble the cake, place the first cake layer on your cake base or pedestal. Spread with a layer of cream cheese frosting using an offset spatula. Repeat for the next two cake layers.
Next, apply a thin coat (crumb coat) of frosting to the top and around the sides of the cake.
At this time, we like to chill the crumb coated Italian Cream Cake in the freezer for 15 minutes (or longer in the refrigerator.) This firms everything up nicely before we apply the second layer of cream cheese frosting.
You can refrigerate your bowl of frosting during this time also if it seems a bit too soft.
Decorating the Italian Cream Cake
Next, apply the second layer of frosting to the chilled cake. Today, we went with a smooth finish for our frosting, but a textured finish is always nice too (as with this ridged buttercream technique)!
When we decorate cakes with a smooth finish, we like to run our bench scraper under very hot water before gliding over the chilled frosting. (This technique is often referred to as the Hot Knife Method).
We then pressed chopped pecans around the base of the cake, and applied stars around the top of the cake using a large 1M piping tip.
Cream Cheese Frosting
We always fill and frost our Italian Cream Cakes with a simple, decadent Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. This is a simple combination of butter, softened cream cheese, vanilla, confectioners sugar, and a pinch of salt.
This recipe makes a great filling and frosting, and we use it on all sorts of cakes, including Red Velvet Cake, Hummingbird Cake, Peaches and Cream Cake, and more!
Consistency of Frosting
Cream cheese frostings are softer than most buttercream frostings and so if it becomes too soft, simply pop the piping bag, bowl, or even the cake into the freezer or refrigerator as needed (for 10 minutes or until desired consistency is reached).
Recipe FAQs
Yes, because of the cream cheese frosting and filling, this cake requires refrigeration.
However, for the best taste and texture, remove the cake from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving to allow the cake and frosting warm and soften.
Yes! Just as with the majority of our cakes (from Hummingbird Cake to Orange Cake, Almond Cake, and more) these Italian Cream Cake layers freeze perfectly.
We like to wrap our cake layers while still slightly warm (although it is fine to wrap room temperature cake layers). Wrap each cake individually, first with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. If you are only freezing for a couple of days, double wrapping with plastic wrap only is fine!
For more stability, you can place each cake layer on a foil-wrapped cardboard cake circle before wrapping.
To thaw the cake layers, remove the wrapped cakes from the freezer and allow to warm on the kitchen counter, still wrapped. After about 30-45 minutes, we remove the wrapping (which likely has condensation), and finish thawing. to desired amount.
Some bakers like to assemble their cakes while the layers are partially frozen as they are less fragile and easier to handle.
Italian cream cake has a heavenly combination of finely chopped pecans, coconut,and cream cheese frosting. With this trio of big flavors, you can't go wrong!
Every bite is bursting with flavor and has great texture too from the coconut and nuts (much like our carrot cake!)
Nobody quite knows where the name or recipe for Italian Cream Cake actually comes from.
I was surprised to find that it's not a traditional recipe of Italy. Some say that the recipe first appeared years ago in a Texas newspaper.
Others say that the "Italian" name comes from an Italian baker that prepared the dessert for a southern family in the US, and it was so well received that the rest is history. (This reminds me of the story of German Chocolate Cake- which was named after the creator of German Chocolate, an American baker named Samuel German.)
All that we know for sure about the origin of Italian Cream Cake is that whoever came up with the recipe is a genius. If you've never tried it, you absolutely must!
We have a few more delicious variations of Italian Cream Cake for you! Don't miss our delicious Chocolate Italian Cream Cake recipe. It is soft and light with wonderful chocolate, pecan, and coconut flavor.
We also have a great Caramel Italian Cream Cake, which incorporates brown sugar and caramel.
In addition, you may like our doctored cake mix Italian Cream Bundt Cake! This recipe has all the flavor of the scratch recipe. It works for cake layers also.
More Classic Cakes
Italian Cream Cake is justone of those good old fashioned cake recipes that everyone needs in their recipe box. We have several other classic cakes that belong on your must-bake list!
Some of our most popular are German Chocolate Cake, Black Forest Cake, homemade Carrot Cake, and our easy Boston Cream Pie from cake mix!
- Black Forest Cake Recipe
- Buttermilk Pound Cake
- Hummingbird Cake Recipe
- Easy Pineapple Upside Down Bundt Cake
Don't miss our full collection of Cake Recipes, including cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes! Also, if you are interested in cake design, we have hundreds of free cake decorating tutorials as well!
You'll find tutorials for birthday cake ideas, elegant cakes, baby shower cakes, holiday cakes and more!
Have you made this Recipe? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Italian Cream Cake Recipe
BY Melissa and Bebe
This amazing Italian Cream Cake recipe has so much flavor from chopped pecans, coconut, cream cheese frosting and more!
Prep Time: 20 minutes mins
Cook Time: 25 minutes mins
Course: Cakes and Cupcakes
Servings: 15 servings
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Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 cup 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- 5 large eggs separated
- 2 cups (242g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (5g) baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (242g) buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
- 1 cup (85g) chopped pecans
- 1 cup (75g) flaked sweetened coconut
FOR THE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened
- 16 oz cream cheese (total weight 452g), softened (We used two 8 oz packages, full fat)
- 1 teaspoon 4g vanilla extract
- 6 to 6 ½ cups 690g to 747g powdered sugar
- 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted (Some bakers like to fold the pecans into the frosting. We prefer to add them to the frosted cake as decoration.)
Instructions
For the Cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8x2 inch pans. You can also use 9 inch pans.
Mix butter at medium speed until softened and smooth. Gradually add sugar, mixing on medium speed 4 to 5 minutes.
Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition until the yellow of the yolk is blended. Add Vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, add flour, baking soda, and salt, whisk at least 30 seconds to blend.
With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture (that is 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 additions of buttermilk) After last addition, mix just until blended..
Fold in pecans and coconut; using a spoon or spatula until combined.
Beat egg whites at high speed until stiff peaks form. Using a spatula or spoon, gently fold into batter.
Spoon batter into three 8 or 9″ round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and cool on wire racks.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
Cut the cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated.
Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended.
Increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy, approximately 1 minute, don't over beat. If beaten too long it will become very soft. If this happens, just refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes.
This frosting will pipe best if used while still very cool. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
Will frost a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake. Cool layers before filling and frosting.
We filled and frosted the cake with cream cheese frosting. Chill at any time during the decorating process to firm things up (15 minutes in the freezer or longer in the refrigerator).
Decorating the Cake
After the cake was completely frosted, we pressed the remaining chopped pecans around the bottom half of the cake. The traditional way to frost this cake is to stir all the pecans into the cream cheese frosting then frost the cake.
Notes
Freezing the Layers: These Italian Cream Cake layers can be wrapped in a layer or two of plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil and frozen for up to three months- they will taste as fresh as the day that they were wrapped. To thaw, move to the kitchen counter, still wrapped. After 30-45 minutes, remove from wrapping and thaw to desired amount for assembling.
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