Italian Cream (Cup)Cakes with Meringue Icing

I've been experimenting with cupcake recipes to serve at my next book club and was craving Italian Cream Cake the other day. Luckily I found this recipe. It starts from a boxed cake mix, so it's nice and easy. I've added some hints at the bottom, gleaned from reading reviews of lots of recipes. If you don't want cupcakes, this will also make enough cake and icing for a 2 layer cake.

Italian Creme Cake

Ingredients:

1 (18.25-oz) box white cake mix

1 stick butter/margarine, softened

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

2 egg whites

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 (8-oz) can crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 cup sweetened flake coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350'F. Line 2 cupcake/muffin pans with paper baking cup liners.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, butter, buttermilk, egg whites* and extracts.  Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed.  Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Fold in crushed pineapple, coconut, and pecans. Divide batter into muffin pans.  Bake in preheated oven according to package directions or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes then finish cooling on wire racks.  Cool completely before frosting. (Makes 24 cupcakes or 2 9-in layers)

*All of the recipes from scratch that I read whipped the egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form, then folded them into the batter as the last step. That's what I did and the cakes were very light and fluffy.

*Everyone says you will get a better texture if all of your ingredients are at room temperature before you start.

*If you're doing a layer cake instead of cupcakes, chill the layers in the fridge for at least 15 minutes before assembling and frosting so they won't be crumbly on you.

*If you're doing a cake, the smaller you chop the pecans, the easier it will be to cut.

Italian Meringue Icing

Ingredients:
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (if you want really white frosting, use clear vanilla)
1/2 tsp almond extract

Directions:
Place cream of tartar and egg whites in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form.

Combine sugar, water and salt in a small saucepan.  Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves, stirring mixture frequently, and bring to a boil.  Cook, without stirring, for 2 minutes or until a candy thermometer registers 238'F. Pour hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over egg whites, beating at high speed until stiff peaks form.  Stir in vanilla and almond extract.

*This icing spreads very smoothly. In fact, for the cupcakes, I just dipped the top in the icing.
*If desired, you can dip the iced cupcakes in coconut or chopped pecans.
*Frosting 2 dozen cupcakes only used up about half of the icing prepared.