My favoritest cake in the whole wide world: Italian Cream Cake

... AKA The Cake of Awesomeosity.

Since I'm a total poseur in the kitchen, I can't make anything without a recipe.

Since I'm fussy, I can rarely settle on just ONE recipe. Instead, I usually smoosh at least two together and add my own adjustments over time via good old fashioned trial and error.

Italian cream cake is THE cake I always request Mom bake for my birthday. It's a family tradition I've since forced on all my friends! (Not that anyone is complainin'- even my foodiest friends proclaim "this is the best cake I've ever put in my mouth!")

Here's the current state of the  recipe I bake for people I adore, which borrows heavily from both "Aunt Tom" and Paula Deen. 

Italian Cream Cake

Ingredients
cake:                                             
2 cups granulated sugar (I typically use turbinado, which slows down the creaming process)
2 sticks butter, softened
5 large eggs, separated
2 cups all-purpose flour (I typically use an organic, unbleached variety via a nearby farmers market)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flaked coconut (sweetened or non-, either is fine)
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped

cream cheese frosting:
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened (I typically use 1 package of regular cream cheese and 1 package of neufchâtel, which has less fat but more moisture... so heads up!)

1 stick butter, softened
2 teaspoons almond extract 

2 pounds confectioners' sugar

Preparation

cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F
Lightly butter three 9" x 2" round cake pans, line with parchment paper, then butter and flour parchment paper-lined pans. Knock out any excess flour and set prepared pans aside.

In a bowl, with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (Bungly not a "real" baker moment: I learned the hard way that doing this properly is key to making a "fluffy" cake, as opposed to a dense cake; the process incorporates air bubbles into the fat. It can take 5-8 minutes, which is almost forever to someone as impatient as I am. Begin beating room temperature butter on slow for about a minute to soften then increase speed to medium and beat until butter is a similar consistency to thick frosting. If butter has crept up the sides of the bowl, scrape it down with a spatula then gradually add sugar until fully combined and continue to mix until a fluffy consistency is achieved.) 

Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each.
Into another bowl sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.

Beat flour mixture into egg mixture in 2 batches alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, until combined.

Stir in vanilla, coconut, and chopped walnuts.

Beat room-temperature egg whites in another bowl until they just hold stiff peaks, then fold into batter gently but thoroughly.

Divide batter equally among prepared pans, smooth tops, and bake in upper third of oven for about 30 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.

Cool cake layers in pans on racks 10 minutes before inverting onto wire racks and allow to cool completely before frosting.

frosting: 

In a bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, butter, and almond extract until smooth.

Gradually add confectioners' sugar, and beat until creamy.

Stack cake layers on a cake plate, spreading frosting between each layer, then spread remaining frosting on top and side of cake.

Tada! It's a bit spendy and a little labor intensive, but so, SO worth it. Everyone who's tried it loves it (even my fellow coconut haters)... if you don't love this cake too, something is very, very wrong with you!  

Post-Thanksgiving update: I peeked at the recipe Mom's used for... well, always. That's one well used (and loved) book, I tell ya. (This book is also the source for those crack-laden Congo Bars of deliciousosity.)

We never knew the name of the cookbook, because the cover and a few pages have been missing as long as any one can remember.  After thumbing through it, I deducted it's Favorite Recipes of Alabama Vocational Home Economics Teachers (possibly the Second Edition) by Vocational Home Economics Office. After a quick Google search, I found a few different editions for sale at Amazon and ebay. 

While I always enjoy research detours, I didn't discover anything that made me want to tweak the recipe further. And that's okay!