Vanilla Cream Cheese Pound Cake

If you need a base on which to serve all those luscious strawberries you just picked, then this Vanilla Cream Cheese Pound Cake  would be it!  Pound cake seemed to be a favorite of my boys back in the day, but it was that famous store-bought version. When searching for a recipe to make a loaf-sized pound cake, I found a lot of bundt-sized cake recipes. Halving a recipe seemed to be the solution. As a reference, my choice was to use one created by Southern Living. Many recipes I found were duplicates of this or maybe it was just a old family recipe that has lasted years because of its flavor.

Under this pile of luscious, fresh picked strawberries lies an incredible slice of homemade pound cake. The effort to create it is minimal. When halving the recipe, I did not halve the vanilla. However, I believe next time I will only use 1-1/2 teaspoons of vanilla and add a little almond extract. That, I think, would be heavenly! Just be cautious, however, if there are people sensitive or allergic to nuts.

The Batter:

First, it’s important to have all ingredients at room temperature. Blend together the butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer for about 2 minutes on medium speed.

Next add in the sugar and continue to beat on medium-high speed for an additional 2 minutes.

Blend in the buttermilk and vanilla .

Then, blend in 1 egg at a time at low speed  just until all are incorporated.. DO NOT OVER MIX !

Finally, mix in the cake flour at low speed,scraping down the sides as needed.

Here’s your batter!

Baking:

Now, prior to all this mixing, I coated the loaf pan with some oil spray(avocado), but butter or any other oil would be fine. A little twist here is that I didn’t flour the pan, I sugared it! This gives sides of the cake a little crispy sweet exterior. Yum! Pour in your batter and level the top using a rubber spatula.

After baking for 75-80 minutes at 325 degrees, the toothpick inserted into the center came out clean! I know this seems quite long, but it’s typical for a pound cake. If you believe your oven cooks things faster, you could probably check it at an hour. Visually, mine appeared to still be a little jiggly in the middle so I left it in for another 15 minutes. I tested it at that point and it was still slightly wet, so I gave it another 5 minutes which seemed to be the perfect amount of time.

Using an offset spatula or knife, you could go around the sides of the pan just to ensure nothing is sticking. Allow it to cool in the pan on the cooling rack for about an hour.

Gently tilt the cake pan over on its side and tap it out. Leave it on the rack to completely cool before slicing. Go by and take a whiff every now and then while it’s cooling. Aromatherapy is a great way to relieve stress.

It’s slicing time! Use a serrated knife.

Here’s an aerial view of strawberries piled on top of this amazing Vanilla Cream Cheese Pound Cake. Go give this a try or make one to share! Your family and friends will be coming back for more. Enjoy!