Lindsey Nair

Features staff writer Lindsey writes about food, restaurants and recipes.

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Recipes

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• Recipe archive

It doesn’t have to be your wedding day for you to enjoy a gourmet cake.

Chef Derrick Beverly has reworked one of his favorite recipes so it will feed an entire family, not a wedding party.

Ingredients:

1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda
5 eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
4 oz. butter
4 oz. shortening
2 cups cake flour
1 tsp. clear vanilla flavoring
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 (6 oz.) bag of fresh shredded coconut
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Combine buttermilk and baking soda and set aside. Cream sugar, butter, shortening and salt together. Add egg yolks, one at a time. Mix in buttermilk mixture, alternating with the flour until it is all incorporated. Stir in vanilla. Lightly beat egg whites and fold in along with pecans and coconuts.

3. Grease and paper three 8-inch round cake pans. Fill with batter more than halfway up the side of each pan (this batter does not rise like a traditional cake batter). Bake for 25-35 minutes, depending on your oven. Let cool in pan for five minutes, then invert over a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Italian Cream Cheese Icing

8 oz. cream cheese
4 oz. butter
5 egg whites
2 lb. powdered sugar
Clear vanilla flavoring to taste

1. Cream the cheese and butter until smooth. Add whites and sugar in batches, scraping down the bowl often. Continue mixing until it is thoroughly blended and smooth. Add flavoring to taste. If the icing is not thick enough, add more powdered sugar to achieve the desired texture.

Source: Derrick Beverly, The Cake and Dessert Pantry.