Italian Cream Cake aka Easter Bombe

Made by Carolyn Godfrey c.2003

2003 - Our very good friend Carolyn has been hoarding this recipe since she was a little girl. Apparently she saw this in the Atlanta Constitution c.1970 and thought "I better save this one!" Thirty years later and she's made it the last two years for her Spring party. The kids love it, and so does Bob. I hear that last year he had three pieces and sat back saying, "maybe I should have stopped at two..." This year we all had just two slices each and boy was that enough. This cake is tremendous. I'm salivating now just writing about it.

Update April 2010: I didn't make the bombe look, but it is one heavy cake. Dina's tax crowd loved it!

Remember, no more than one slice each. Or if you have more than two, call your heart surgeon to make an appointment.

And don't swim for a year after eating this!

Serves: 16

More super recipes!

0.	Prepare
		Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour three 8 inch cake pans. Make sure to get the grease into the corners of the pans!

A.	sugar	2 cups
	shortening	1 cup
	butter	4 ounces	At room temperature.
	eggs	5 large	Separate the yolks.
		Using a stand mixer, cream sugar and shortening well. Add butter and beat until fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each.

B.	vanilla	1 tablespoon
	buttermilk	1 cup
	flour	2 cups
	salt	0.5 teaspoon
	baking soda	1 teaspoon
		In a cup add the vanilla to the buttermilk. Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl. While mixing the batter, alternately add the vanilla/buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture.

C.	egg whites from above
	pecans	1 cup	Chopped.
	shredded dried coconut	2 cups
		Beat egg whites until lightly stiff. Fold into the mix along with the pecans and coconut. Pour into cake pans and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. If your oven is tight, then set a timer for 15 minutes and rotate the pans at that point. Remove the cake pans from the oven. Use a knife around the edge of each pan and turn the cakes out onto a wire rack. Allow to cool.

D.	cream cheese	16 ounces	At room temperature.
	butter	8 ounces	At room temperature.
	vanilla extract	2 teaspoons
	powdered sugar	32 ounces
		In a stand mixer, combine cream cheese and softened butter with vanilla extract and sugar. Beat until creamy. God is that sweet. Stack the cakes with a thin layer of frosting between them. Frost the sides and top of the cake.

	OPTIONAL
E.	shredded dried coconut	1 cup
	green food coloring
	chocolate eggs	14 small	Best are candy coated ones in robin's egg blue.
		If it's Easter, you might want to make your cake more festive. Toss coconut with a few drops of green coloring. Arrange coconut in a bird nest shape on top of cake. Place eggs inside the "nest" and around the edge of the cake.

Nutrition Panel from Wolfram Alpha (Per Serving)