Italian Cream Cake

I'm not sure what differentiates an Italian cream from a traditional coconut cake, but listen, after having a lick of the batter, it does not matter! Call it what you like!

Wow, because seriously, this was delicious.

You can imagine what the texture of it was like with a half lb butter, 5 egg yolks combined with a cup of buttermilk. Let's not forget the addition of whipped egg whites! Holy moly! Top me off!

My mood has been "Eastery" lately, hence, the dyed coconut shreds resembling grass, the bunny, and candy eggs. The original recipe calls for chopped nuts on top the frosting if you are interested, but ick. No nuts in my frosting please; opted for Easter stuff instead.

Excuse the actual frosting portion though: I'm slightly impaired when it comes to handling frosting tips and frosting bags. These hands need a bit more practice, ya know?

But I had a lot of fun doing it, so what else matters?

Italian Cream Cake

{Parley's First Ward Cookbook-thanks Sharee for the recipe!}

2 cups sugar

1/2 butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 tsp vanilla

5 egg yolks

5 egg whites, beaten medium stiff

2 cups flour

1 cup buttermilk*

1 tsp baking soda

1 c. coconut, shredded

Cream together the sugar, butter, shortening, and vanilla. Add the egg yolks one at a time. Add the buttermilk, dry ingredients, and coconut. Gently fold in the egg whites until incorporated.

Bake in three** 9 inch cake pans for 25-30 minutes. Cool.

***Frosting:

16 oz cream cheese

1 cup butter

8 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Make sure both the cream cheese and butter are soft and at room temperature. Mix all the ingredients together until it's fluffy and smooth. Frost in between layers and top. This frosting makes a LOT!

*You don't HAVE to purchase buttermilk-- for every cup a recipe calls for, measure out a cup of normal milk and add a Tbsp or so of pure white vinegar or lemon juice to it. Allow it to sit for 5 minutes. Viola.

**I only got 2 9-inch cake pans out of this? Not sure why, but I ended up baking a second batch of cake batter in order to acheive the third layer.

***Frosting: doubled this recipe...I always seem to run low on it, so doubling it is always necessary for me!