Italian Wedding Cake

Tell me am I a little off because I like to read cookbooks. At one point I had a whole kitchen cabinet devoted to cook books, diet books, and magazines related to food.

Unfortunately, when I moved to Kansas, I had to cut down. I kept my favorites. I still surf the web looking for ideas. What am I looking for? Recipes that are inexpensive, but taste that way, anything chocolate, and twits on my favorite comfort foods, and dishes I’ve tried in restaurants that I think I can redo at home.

And on that note, years ago, so coworkers and I were having dinner and a local Italian restaurant (yes, it was a chain) in Little Rock, OK North Little Rock, (known better for bar b.q. and soul food, but that is for another post). We had a really good dinner and followed with dessert of course,

They serve this cake; they called it “Italian Wedding Cake”. Well this cake is a white cake with a coconut frosting. The cake itself was moist and had a nutty flavor, without being overly crunchy. The frosting was light and sweet. It didn’t over power the cake like some can.

I have been looking for this cake again. Years have gone by. The chain restaurant that I originally had the cake has yet to feature it again. Boo hiss.

But, as I was digging though my box of books, I found a small, spiral bound cookbook. And as flipped though the pages, it’s called Arkansas favorites. It was published back when Bill was the governor, there was a recipe for Italian Wedding Cake,

It just needs to be changed a little, and it will be that cake from all those years ago.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I give you Italian Wedding Cake.

CAKE
1Cup Butter Milk
1 tsp baking soda
5 eggs separated
2 cups of sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 can coconut (3 1/2 oz.)
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 stick butter
1/2 cup shortening
2 Cups Flour

ICING
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter
1 box powdered sugar, sifted

DIRECTIONS
combine soda, and milk. cream sugar, butter and shortening. Add egg yolks one at a time, beat well. Add milk and flour alternately. Stir sin vanilla . Beat egg whites until stiff: fold int mixture. Stir in nuts and coconut. Bake in three 9" round cake pans for 30 minutes.

For the icing cream the cheese and butter  and add the powdered sugar a little at a time.