Italian Wedding Cake Recipe

This is one variation of the many Italian Wedding Cake Recipes that are available.

The cake is moist and has a good flavor.

It would be best to bake this cake the day before to the occasion.

This recipe makes three 18cm (7 inch) cakes or one 22cm (8½ inch) round cake.

 

Italian Wedding Cake

Ingredients

For the Cake

½ cup (120 ml) buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (210g) unsalted butter

1 cup (200g) white sugar *

5 egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups (250g) sifted all-purpose flour (plain flour)**

5 egg whites

1/2 cup (120g) drained crushed pineapple

1/2 cup (35g) flaked coconut

1 cup (120g) chopped pecans

* If you would like a sweeter cake add an extra cup of sugar (the original recipe had 2 cups of sugar and we found that to be too sweet) ** You can use 2 cups (250g) sifted self raising flour instead of the plain flour and leave out the baking soda if you do use the self raising flour.

Icing

3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened

1 (8 ounce) (250g) package cream cheese, softened

4 cups (500g) confectioners' sugar (icing sugar)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup (120g) chopped pecans

Directions

To make the cake

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC). Line three 7 inch (18cm) cake tins or one (8½ inch) 22cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.



2. Mix the buttermilk, baking soda and salt put aside for use later.



3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (the mixture will look a lot lighter than when you first started mixing, it could take 3-5 minutes for it to become fluffy with an electric mixer).



4. Add the egg yolks one at a time beating well (only add the next egg yolk when the first one has been incorporated into the mix repeat this until all the yolks have been used), then beat in the vanilla and almond extract.



5. Add the buttermilk mixture alternating with the flour until it is just incorporated.



6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Stir in pineapple, coconut and pecans.



7. Pour batter evenly into the prepared pans. Bake for 35 minutes or more for the smaller three cake mix. For the one cake tin mix it can take up to 1 hour but do check before the time is up as oven temperatures do vary.



8. The cake is cooked when a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow cake/s to cool in the tins for ten minutes then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely before icing.

To Make the Icing

1. Cream together the butter, cream cheese and confectioners' sugar until blended.



2. Stir in vanilla and pecans. If the icing is too stiff to spread, stir in milk a teaspoon at a time until it reaches desired spreading consistency.



3. If you would prefer the icing to be smooth don't add the pecans. Sprinkle the pecans over the top of the icing.