Italian Love Cake

Italian Love Cake is a super fun cake mix dessert made in a 13x9 inch pan. I found the recipe on Food.com, formerly known as Recipe Genius, and prior to that Recipezaar. It's always been a great source of interesting recipes, and Italian Love Cake is one of them.

The cake seems like an American-Italian recipe that you’d find in church cookbooks from the eastern part of the United States in that it's "Americanized" with the cake mix, pudding mix and Cool Whip, but has Italian dessert qualities such as being less sweet, both cake-y and creamy and really pretty.

Italian Love Cake is also easy! You start with regular cake mix -- any brand will do. Then you mix the batter as directed and pour it in the pan. The second step is to mix together some ricotta, eggs and vanilla which you pour over the top.  Here's a lovely photo of mine before it went in the oven.

And here it is after.

Once cooled you mix together some pudding mix and milk, fold in some Cool Whip, then spread over the top.

How Much Pudding Mix in Italian Love Cake?

Recipes differ. Some versions call for a 5.1 oz box of pudding mix while some call for 3.9. And the amount of whipped topping varies too. I went with the 3.8 oz box of pudding mix and used 1 ½ containers (12 oz weight total) of Cool Whip. You could get away with using 1 8-oz carton or maybe 2, but I liked the flavor of 1 ½ cartons. 

Serving and Freezing

Italian Love Cake makes a brilliant presentation. I used a glass dish because I was in a glass dish mood and it baked up perfectly at 325F. It looks pretty in the dish, but is beautiful when cut and plated. Since there was no way we could eat it all at once, I lifted the cake from the glass dish, cut it in half and froze half. So I'm happy to say it freezes quite well.

Pan Size

Italian Love Cake calls for a 9x13 inch pan, but it's a large cake so make sure your 9x13 inch pan doesn't have short sides or a shape that limits its volume amount. My glass dish worked fine, but I received a note from a reader who had issues fitting her cake into one dish.

8-Inch Glass Dish Half Batch

I recently made a quick half batch Italian Love Cake using half a box of Aldi brand chocolate cake mix (1 ½ cups plus a teaspoon or 7.6 oz weight), 1 egg and 1 yolk, ½ cup water, ¼ cup oil, then 1 cup ricotta, 2 eggs. 6 tablespoons sugar and half teaspoon of vanilla. Topping was half a box of pudding mix, ½ cup of milk with ¾ cup heavy cream, whipped and sweetened, folded in. This is just a candid photo to give you an idea of what it looks like. It's much prettier plated! For the half batch, I baked at 325 for only 45 minutes.

Update in Betty Crocker Cake Mix Size

Thanks to Lynn for testing Italian Love Cake with the new size of Betty Crocker cake mix. The new cake mix size is 13.25 oz. Lynn adjusted the water from 1 ¼ cups to 1 cup and the recipe worked just fine.

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Recipe

Italian Love Cake

Cookie Madness

Italian Love Cake made with cake mix, ricotta cheese and Cool Whip.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 6 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Total Time 6 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 18

Ingredients

 

• 1 13.25 oz box Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix or other brand See note
• 1 cup water
• 3 large eggs
• ½ cup vegetable oil

Ricotta Cheese Mixture

• 1 32 oz container whole milk ricotta cheese
• 4 large eggs (not extra large or jumbo!) -- medium okay
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla or vanilla bean paste

Whipped Topping:

• 1 3.8 oz. package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup cold whole milk
• 2 8 oz containers whipped topping** (You don't have to use both containers as noted below)

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F if using a metal pan and 325 degrees F if using a 9x13 inch glass baking dish. I used 325 and a 9x13 inch glass baking dish. Grease bottom of the pan (or dish). UPDATE: So far I have only ever baked this in glass dishes and used the 325 temp. The old recipe does say 350, but I think 325 is a safer temp. My latest cake, a half batch, was done in 45 minutes.
• In a large mixing bowl, prepare the cake mix as directed on package. In this case that would be Betty Crocker Super Moist, so you mix the mix, water, eggs and oil and beat for 2 minutes. Pour into the baking pan.
• In another bowl, beat together the ricotta cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
• Spoon or pour the cheese mixture evenly over the top of the cake batter.
• Bake the cake at 350 for 1 hour or 325 for 1 hour and 5 minutes(if using a glass dish) or until the cake seems firm to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
• To make the topping, whisk together the pudding mix and milk. Fold the whipped topping into the pudding, then spread all over the cake. Cover and chill overnight (or for at least 4 hours minimum).

Notes

Use 1 carton of whipped topping plus as much as you need from the second carton. I used 1 ½ cartons.

 

Keyword Italian Cream Cake, Italian Love Cake

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