ITALIAN CREAM CAKE

Hi All!  I hope that this post finds you doing well and I also hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  My mother recently had knee surgery and since she couldn't stand for very long, I was on cooking duty for Thanksgiving.  She cooked the turkey and dressing (thank goodness) and I made all of the side dishes.  As usual, I was in charge of dessert.  This one is going to come as a bit of a surprise to you because I don't think I have made a cake for my blog yet.  To be honest, cakes aren't really my thing but my Aunt Marshall made a special request for me to make an Italian Cream Cake and who was I to disappoint her? 

As you can imagine, there are hundreds of different recipes out there for Italian Cream Cake but since I am a such huge Paula Deen fan, I decided to go with her version and boy, am I glad I did!  It was a hit with my family and believe me, that is a BIG deal.  They are 10 times harsher than the any food critic so if they take more than two bites of something that I've prepared without giving me a list of things that I did wrong, I know that I must have done a good job. 

**Special Notes - I don't really have any.  I didn't alter the recipe one bit.  For the outside of the cake, I simply toasted some coconut, spread it along the sides and sprinkled some on top.  I also used a cake decorating bag to add a little flair around the edges of the top.

**Final Thoughts - I believe my Aunt Marshall's exact words were, "Girl, you know you put your foot off in this." ;-)

INGREDIENTS:
(For the Cake)

2 1/2 sticks butter, softened and divided

2 cups sugar
5 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 (3.5 ounce) can flaked sweetened coconut
1 cup nuts, finely chopped

(For the Frosting)
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (1 pound) box confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract

DIRECTIONS:
To Make the Cake

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 9-inch cake pans.
2.  Using an electric mixer, cream 1 cup butter and sugar.

3.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Set aside.

4.  Stir together flour and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.

5.  Stir in vanilla, coconut and nuts.

6.  Divide batter equally among prepared pans.

7.  Bake 30 minutes. Cool cakes in pans 5 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks to cool completely.

TO MAKE THE FROSTING:
Beat cream cheese and the remaining 1/4 cup butter together. Add confectioners' sugar and almond extract. Beat until smooth.
Use frosting between layers of the cake.