Sweet Dreams Are Made of These

Now that I've got that Eurythmics song stuck in your head, I'm free to share with you the latest in my series on yummy things I've been baking.

This is one of my all time favorites, and a family classic. Here's what we're cooking: Italian Creme Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. It makes a spectacularly beautiful triple layer cake but I wanted to send some to Ben's office and some to mine so I made it cupcake style.

So get your gear together... really basic ingredients. The only things you might not have on hand (unless you're a baker too) are buttermilk and pecans. Every thing else is common-found kitchen stuff.


This cake, like many others, asks you to separate the egg yolks and whites for two different steps in the recipe. You always want to do this first because the egg whites do best when they are allowed to get near room temperature. I always learned it was best to put them in a metal bowl, too. So here you go:


Now (and again this is the common first step in baking) cream the butter, shortening, and sugar together. I liked this action shot:


Then add the eggs and beat that together. Next you alternately add the buttermilk/vanilla and the flour/baking soda/salt mixture. You'll end up with a very pretty thick cake batter. Mmmm.


Now for the finishing touches on the batter. Time to chop those pecans. I use my sweet hand mixer attachment but a food processor would work too, or I suppose you could chop them by hand if you're feeling crazy. I mean ambitious. I like to get them into very fine pieces. Now you see them:


Now you don't!


Now stir those into the batter by hand. Next, time to beat the snot out of those egg whites. If you sort of tilt the bowl and hold it then use a hand mixer and just kind of beat them against the side of the bowl, it works well. Beat until very stiff, so that when you pull the beaters out they leave little peaks. I also think a good sign is if you sort of tilt the bowl and the whole mess moves as one blob that you could slide out in one piece. Such as:


Now gingerly fold the egg whites into the batter. I would recommend using a soft spatula. You really want to preserve the fluffiness of the egg whites as you stir it into the batter. It might take a few minutes to do it properly, but it will be worth it. It should feel like the amount of batter has increased and changed consistency to be a little lighter and fluffier and thinner. But not runny!

Off to the cupcake pan with you! Do NOT overfill the cups; this cake expands a lot and then sinks down once out of the oven, so if it spills over the edges you'll be in trouble. It will still taste good, but won't be as pretty.


They bake up to be a lovely toasted brown color, and as I mentioned they will sink a little in the middle as they cool. Fear not, we're going to cover that with frosting. Little naked cupcakes prepare for their coats:


Whip up a little cream cheese frosting, give them a healthy dose, and voila. Done. Maybe garnish with a pecan or some pecan crumbs if you feel so inclined. Look how keeeeeyoooooote!


I defy you not to like this cake. People who don't like nuts like it. People who don't like cream cheese (me) like it. People who don't like people like it. I don't know what it is about the combination of flavors but yum! Recommended for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I don't have the recipe on hand as I'm typing this up at Ben's office, but I will post it when I get home or you can always message me and I'll share it. Happy baking!