Italian Cream Bundt Cake is a southern cake flavored with coconut and pecans. This delicious bundt cake is covered in a thick and rich cream cheese glaze.
There’s really nothing Italian about an Italian Cream Cake and I’m not sure how it got it’s name. Typically it is made as a layer cake with a cream cheese frosting. Here is my Italian Cream Cake Recipe. I find a bundt cake version is much easier to make. Definitely easier to frost.
The flavors of coconut and pecans are what really gives Italian Cream Bundt Cake its flavor profile. I also like to add a little almond extract to the cake batter.
Italian Cream Bundt Cake Recipe Tips
You can skip the step of toasting the pecans and coconut but I don’t recommend it. Toasting them really enhances the flavors. Carefully watch while they are toasting. The coconut especially can brown very quickly if you leave it in the oven too long.
To prevent any lumps in the frosting, sift the powdered sugar either in a sifter of use a fine-meshed sieve.
Be sure to measure the flour correctly. The biggest risk when baking a bundt cake is having it turn out dry. To prevent a dry bundt cake don’t overbake it, even just a little bit and don’t use too much flour. Fluff the flour up some in the bag with a spoon and then use the spoon to scoop it into a measuring cup. Use the back of a knife to run across the top to level it off.
Bundt cakes sometimes like to stick to the pan. To prevent this, use a good quality non-stick bundt pan and grease it very well. I have good results using Baker’s spray with flour.
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Italian Cream Bundt Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 to 4 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 10 to 12 cup Bundt pan with baking spray with flour.Place chopped pecans and shredded coconut on a large baking sheet. Place in oven for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring once. Let cool.
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Place butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment beat at medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each one is completely mixed in before adding the next. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl at least once.
- Mix in vanilla and almond extract.
- With mixer on LOW, add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk in 2 additions.
- Set aside about 1/2 cup of the pecan/coconut mixture. Stir the rest into the batter.
- Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the top comes out clean.
- Let cool in pan for 15 minutes and then invert onto a cake stand or serving platter.
- Make frosting. Beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until blended and creamy. Add confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and milk. Beat at medium speed until creamy and smooth.
- Once cake has cooled, drizzle frosting on cake. Sprinkle pecans and coconut on top.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I made This cake in the layers, and my family loved it. I saw your recipe in the Bundt cake and I do appreciate it so much because I do love the cake and so does my family. You made in a Bundt cake and it’s just so much easier and convenient for us can’t wait to check out your other recipes thank you so much.
I made this recipe and used it in a little mini Bundt cake maker thing I got for Christmas. Really delicious!!
My mother was a great baker and she made the layer version of Italian Cream Cake going back more than 50 years. I still have her recipe, but I don’t like making layer cakes. I was so glad to find this recipe. I made it yesterday for our holiday dinner dessert. It is perfect. I doubled the icing, and it looked exactly like your picture. Thank you for this recipe!
Chill out. If you are not happy with her recipe or comments well then, do not follow her blog.
To Janet Dowe: I am a full blooded Italian girl (according to 23 and me), I am 97 percent Italian. I read your comment and took umbrage by it. We Italians cook with all sorts of nuts: walnuts, pecans, almonds, pistachios, cashews, hazelnuts, etc. And yes, we even use coconut in some of sweets that we make. I think your last statement in your comment was very rude to say the very least. And by the way, the Italian Cream Cake has always been a family favorite of ours, especially at Easter and for birthdays. We bake our in a large cake pan, we Italians have large families.
Can this be made without a stand mixer?
Your comments about accurately measuring the flour are well intentioned, but if you friend value accuracy, why not give the flour measurement by weight as well at volume?
I appreciate a recipe author who states, as you did, whether they wrote the recipe for “spoon & sweep” or “dip & sweep” measurements (the former being the more accurate), however all of that, as well as an entire paragraph of your notes, becomes irrelevant by simply providing weight measurements.
The cost of accurate digital scales is now barely more than that of a Pyrex measuring cop, and provides the most accurate and reproducible results.
I have a grandson with a gluten allergy, would using a gluten free flour change anything about the recipe? Thanks in advance.
If your going to do gluten-free baking, you need to do some research on gluten-free websites to learn the basics. Once learned, they are fairly consistent for all basic cakes. They usually involve the Ashton if either guar gum or xanthum (or both) to your flour of choice, or (even simpler) the use of a one-to-one baking flour substitute that already incorporates those additives. For best results, but one of superior quality from a reportable vendor, like King Arthur’s.
Asking the author of every recipe that you find on the web for specific gluten-free instructions is not only impractical, and unfair to the author, but unreliable, as you cannot count on a mainstream baker to know the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of gluten-free baking.
King Arthur gluten free flour works fine in this!!
What about this makes it “Italian”? Pecans are a southern US thing, coconut is a tropical thing, cream cheese is a North American thing, buttermilk is definitely not Italian….seriously. Call it Southern Bundt Cake or US Bundt Cake, but not Italian. You might as well call it Japanese Bundt Cake or Burmese Cuisine Bundt Cake 🙄🙄🙄
She explained this in the second paragraph.
“There’s really nothing Italian about an Italian Cream Cake and I’m not sure how it got it’s name. Typically it is made as a layer cake with a cream cheese frosting. “
This is just a Bundt cake version of the Italian cream cake. It sounds terrific and I plan to make it for Thanksgiving 😃
Wow…..if you can’t say anything nice……
Yep. 👍
Maybe you should read her description first before you become so self righteous. As far as I can tell this is almost exactly like the italian cake you can get in the store. So this recipe is similar to those cakes. Why not complain to them too!!
Janey, why be disputing the nationality of ingredients for a delicious cake recipe?? Everyone eats CAKE no matter what their nationality 🇺🇸
well said
OMGosh, this Bundt cake was delish. My daughter’s and I got together before thanksgiving testing 4 desserts, so we could decide on which to serve for the holidays. This was absolutely devine and very elegant when served in a footed cake plate. Thanks for sharing a great cake. Btw, some people just lack ethics and class on a website viewed by so many. Enjoy the great comments from the positive, happy and grateful people out there!