Cream Cheese Pound Cake

If I had to pin down a recipe that I am known for, my signature recipe, it would have be one-step pound cake.  And, before me, it was my mom’s signature recipe.  I just kind of took it over.   Mostly, because my husband’s family is so crazy about it.  I just love the ease of dumping everything into the bowl, mixing and baking a delicious pound cake.  So, why even mess with it as my husband would say?  Well, because I am always on the lookout for something better.  There is only one recipe that I love so much that I can’t see making any other way, and that is the Baked brownie  (please excuse the picture, it was one of my 1st posts ).  Sure, I’ll make different flavor brownie recipes but as for a plain brownie, the search is over. Perfection I tell you.  Mmmm. Sorry, I digress.  Back to poundcake.

I had a giant stack of Cook’s Country magazines and I decided to go through them and write down what I would like to make in each one.  Man, that is a lot of recipes.  A bit overwhelming, but I decided to dive in right away with this cream cheese pound cake.  Because it is one of my favorite desserts, I have eaten more than my share of pound cake.  But I don’t think I have have ever had one with cream cheese.  While this recipe certainly isn’t one bowl, three bowls actually, it is worth the extra effort.  And really, it isn’t that much extra work, just more dishes.  In the end, you get a buttery, velvet textured pound cake with a tight crumb and a pleasant tang from the cream cheese.  To me, the flavor is very reminiscent of cheesecake.  Pound cake that tastes like cheesecake?  That can only be a good thing.  In fact, it was so good that Sammie had to create a new high to our rating scale.  Instead of a sky high thumbs up, it got all ten fingers sky high.  Now that my friends, is a good pound cake.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Yield: 1 bundt cake

3 Cups (12 oz) cake flour
1 Teaspoon salt
4 large eggs plus 2 large yolks, room temperature
1/4 Cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 Cups (21 oz) sugar
3 sticks unsalted butter , softened
6 oz cream cheese, softened

Adjust the oven rack to middle position and preheat your oven to 300F.  Grease and flour a 12 cup bundt pan.  Combine flour and salt in a bowl.  Whisk eggs, yolks, milk and vanilla in a 2 cup liquid measuring cup.

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat sugar, butter, and cream cheese on medium high until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Reduce the speed to low and very slowly add the egg mixture until incorporated (batter may look a bit curdled).  Add flour mixture in 3 additions, scraping down the bowl as needed.  Give the batter a final stir by hand.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and gently tap it on the counter to release any air bubbles.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 80 to 90 minutes.  Rotate the pan halfway in the baking time.  Cool the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes only.  Longer than 15 minutes, and it may be hard to remove from the pan.  Remove the cake from the pan and let cool completely, about 2 hours.  The cake can be wrapped with plastic and held at room temperature for 3 days.

I like to serve with sweetened strawberries and whipped cream.

Source:  Cook’s Country April/May 2012

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Posted by Just Baked on July 20, 2012

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