ROSALIE'S ITALIAN CREAM CAKE

ROSALIE'S ITALIAN CREAM CAKE

NOTE:  You may already have this recipe, especially if you have my
book, *Rosalie Serving Italian*.  But just in case you don't, you will
love to make it for the Thanksgiving holiday.  It is not only
scrumptious, but positively delicious!

1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup butter
2 cups sugar
½ cup mild olive oil
5 egg yolks
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

5 egg whites
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped pecan or walnut pieces

Butter for greasing pans
Flour for dusting pans

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 stick butter
2 (8-ounce) packages Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

½ cup toasted coconut ( toast in dry skillet, stirring constantly
about 1 minute)

Sugar Glazed Pecans
½ cup whole pecans
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
1 small skillet

1.  Preheat oven to 325-degrees.  Combine buttermilk and baking soda
in a two-cup measure to allow room for mixture to foam up; set aside.
Beat butter and sugar until creamy.  Add olive oil slowly until
blended.  Continue to beat until mixture is smooth and shiny.  Add egg
yolks one at a time and beat well after each addition; stir in
vanilla.  Add buttermilk mixture and flour, alternately a little at a
time, begining and ending with flour.

2.  Clean beaters and beat egg whites until stiff.  Fold egg whites
gently into batter.  Stir in coconut and pecans.  Pour into three 9-
inch cake pans, greased with butter and dusted with flour.  Bake for
30 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched.  Cool cakes on
racks.

3.  Place cake on cake stand. Frost each layer with Cream Cheese Frosting 
including sides and top of cake.

4.  Put pecans in skillet and sprinkle with the sugar.  Turn heat to
medium and begin stirring pecans; sugar will begin to melt.  Continue
stirring until a glaze forms on pecans and they become slightly
browned.  Remove from heat and place on waxed paper to cool.

5. Garnish cake with Sugar Glazed Pecans and Toasted Coconut;  add a
maraschino cherry in the middle.  Makes 16 slices.