Italian Crème Cake

(from Elizabeth Nardi Jeffries)

My Elizabethan Sister, Elizabeth Jeffries, you may recall from our sixth stop, is Italian from head to toe. No wonder she spent ninety days in Florence. No wonder she’s sharing this incredibly delicious recipe with us. The end result is molto bella e deliziosa!

Ingredients:
Cake:
2 sticks of BUTTER
2 cups of sugar
5 egg yolks
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup BUTTERmilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
5 egg whites stiffly beaten

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
½ stick BUTTER
1 box powdered sugar (you may need a bit more than one box…)
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chopped pecans

Directions:
Cake:

• Cream BUTTER and sugar and beat ‘til smooth.

• Add egg yolks and beat well.

• Combine flour and soda and add to creamed mixture, alternating with BUTTERmilk. (Start with flour and end with flour.)

• Stir in vanilla, add coconut and pecans.

• Gently fold in beaten egg whites and pour into three 8-inch greased and floured cake pans.

• Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until done.

• Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• Beat cream cheese and BUTTER ‘til smooth.

• Add sugar and mix well.

• Add vanilla and beat ‘til smooth.

• Spread between layers and top and sides.

• Sprinkle the top with nuts. (Sometimes I freeze the cakes before frosting them. Holds and frosts better.)