Italian Cream Cake Recipe (Old-Fashioned Southern Favorite)

Why You’ll Love This Southern Classic
Swaps You Can Make
8-inch or 9-inch pans?
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Italian Cream Cake

This classic Italian Cream Cake is a moist, homemade layer cake filled with coconut and pecans, then frosted with rich cream cheese frosting. A Southern favorite that’s perfect for holidays, birthdays, and special occasions.

Why You’ll Love This Southern Classic

Despite the name, this delicious cake originated in the South, and it’s a cake everyone should try! It’s a three-layer cake with a delicious cream cheese frosting; you add in coconut and pecans, and it’s a wonderful combination. This is the cake that you can’t control yourself around; it’s really that good! The texture and the flavor is wonderful. Yes, you will see when you read the recipe this cake takes some work, but let me assure you, it is worth the effort.

Swaps You Can Make

Looking over other recipes, some people like to use almond extract in this cake, but we have always been fans of vanilla. I think either would be delicious! We love the combination of pecans and cream cheese but you can always use walnuts if you like. We use the sweetened coconut in this recipe but you can always try it with unsweetened. We use full-fat buttermilk in this recipe and love the moisture it adds, but you can use full-fat milk and make a buttermilk substitute.

8-inch or 9-inch pans?

We use 8-inch pans for this recipe, which gives the right thickness for the three layers. I have seen other recipes that call for 9-inch pans, and people complain that the layers are too thin. We suggest using the 8-inch pans.

Slice of classic Italian Cream Cake with cream cheese frosting

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Italian Cream Cake

Leigh Walkup

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Italian

1 cup butter or 2 sticks or 16 tablespoons softened
1 3/4 cups white granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups coconut I used the sweetened coconut flakes
1 cup pecan pieces
5 egg whites

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients

1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter or 8 tablespoons or 1/2 cup softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Cream butter, sugar and egg yolks. Whisk together the flour and soda and add to creamed mixture along with buttermilk and vanilla extract. Mix well. Stir in coconut and nuts. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into cake mixture.
Spray three 8 inch cake pans with cooking spray. Divide mixture between the three pans and bake in preheated 350 degree oven 25 to 30 minutes until centers are done. Frost with cream cheese frosting recipe below.