Italian Cream Cake

Mmm CAKE!

Have you ever had an Italian Cream cake? I'm not sure of it's history but I think it's sort of a Southern/Texas thing more than Italian. The cake has coconut and pecans like a German Chocolate cake but it's vanilla with cream cheese frosting. I had never made or eaten one before this weekend when I did both! My grandpa requested an Italian Cream cake for his 82nd birthday so I did some recipe research and began to bake. I looked at a few classic recipes from my mom's Texas cookbooks and decided on this one from Pioneer Woman that is similar. The only change I made was rather than mixing the pecans & coconut in the icing I put pecans on top of the icing between layers and decorated the cake with more pecans & toasted coconut. It turned out to be really pretty & delicious! There was hardly any left at the end of our Easter get-together so that is always a good sign. Try it next time you're making a cake!