PW Wednesdays: Billie’s Italian cream cake

This Italian cream cake from the Pioneer Woman is filled with coconut cream and outrageously decadent.

We’re back! And someone finally picked a dessert for these Wednesday shenanigans. Thank you, Julie!

Dessert is pretty much the last thing I need right now after bridal shower ice cream sundaes & cake and happy hour wings & beer over the last few days. But, when duty calls…

Let’s talk about the fun part first.

1. This was my first attempt ever at a layered cake. I was half excited, half scared.

2. Spreading icing all over a cake is like an edible art class. I give myself an A.

2. Cream cheese frosting, need I say more?

3.  Yes, I will say more. Coconut. Ok, now I’m done.

Now here’s my honest take on this cake.

1. I have no idea why it’s called Billie’s Italian cream cake.

Billie definitely ain’t Italian. In fact, there’s nothing Italian about this cake at all.

Cream cheese is not Italian. Perhaps if it were mascarpone or ricotta, I’d get it. Maybe if there was some sort of amaretto flavoring to the actual cake part even I could get behind this Italian claim.

But alas, there’s not. Seems like Billie’s horizon’s need some broadening.

2. While the cake was very fun to assemble and looked absolutely awesome, I thought the taste was less than impressive.

I hid that slice above in the microwave for the entire day patiently waiting for dessert after dinner to dig in.

Hopes were high for this cream cheese filled little guy but one bite in and I was pretty disappointed.

It’s not that it wasn’t good (that would be hard to do with the amount of cream cheese, sugar and butter in this), it’s just that it tasted like any other regular cake.

If I didn’t actually make it myself, I honestly would’ve thought it was store bought.

There’s no “wow” factor to the cake part and the cream cheese icing overpowers everything else.

Not that cream cheese is a bad thing, because it’s definitely my favorite kind of icing, it was just TOO MUCH.

In typical Gina fashion, I made a few tweaks.

First of all, I halved the recipe which was easy except for the fact that it had 5 eggs in it.

Unlike some others, I did not shove half an egg into a measuring spoon and just went with 3.

It worked fine.

I cut the sugar down even further than half and I subbed applesauce for half the oil.

For the icing, even halving the recipe required a POUND of powdered sugar. Yes a full freakin pound. Slightly insane-o. I used less. I don’t even know how much less, I just poured enough from the bag into the mixer until I got the consistency I wanted.

Don’t worry, there’s still too much plenty of sugar.

I used a large baking sheet and just spread the batter out as far as it would go and crossed my fingers it wouldn’t slip into the empty abyss to the right.

It didn’t.

I cut it into 3 sections (yes, using a tailor measuring tape for accuracy) thinking I was going to do one long rectangular cake but then ended up cutting those in half and making two smaller ones instead.

The icing was made while the cakes cooled, my kitchen was left in a total state of disarray and whisks were attacked with vigor during the cleanup.

All in all, I think this cake has potential.

The cake part needs to be sassified up with some more flavor.

Personally, I’d make it a bit healthier with some flour and sweetener changes too. It’s a shame when you give into “normal” ingredients and don’t even come out with something that tastes good enough to be worth it.

The icing could also use some healthy tweaks, a lot less sugar and just less of it in general. It should be an accent to the cake, not completely overwhelm it.

Not a horrible recipe, but not a great one either in my opinion.

For the recipe, check out Julie’s post.

And for everyone else’s opinions and fun variations on this check them out below.

Megan- Wanna Be a Country Cleaver

Rachel- Baked by Rachel

Catching up on PW Wednesday posts?

Fried chicken tacos

Mushroom swiss sliders

Carnitas pizza

Breakfast pizza

White chicken enchiladas