This recipe is for a cream cheese pound cake that was adapted from Sara Foster's "The Foster's Market Cookbook". When you add cream cheese to a pound cake batter it gives the cake a wonderful rich and buttery flavor, moist texture, and a golden brown crust that is both sweet and crisp. Adding either lemon zest or orange zest (the outer skin of the fruit) adds a nice citrus flavor and you could also add some chopped nuts, dried fruit, or even some chocolate chips. It is important when making any pound cake to have the butter and eggs at room temperature as this enables the maximum amount of air to be beaten into the batter. There is a tendency for the batter to curdle when adding the eggs but having the eggs at room temperature and adding each egg separately will help to prevent this. But don't worry if it does curdle as once the flour is added the batter will smooth out.

Whether you are using a loaf, cake, bundt or tube pan it is worth mentioning that if you are using a dark colored pan, reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). We do this because dark colored pans absorb more of the energy coming from the oven walls so they become hotter and transmit heat faster than light colored pans. Reducing the oven temperature slightly will help compensate for this.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter and flour a 10 inch (25 cm) bundt pan.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, in three additions, beating well after each addition. Continue beating on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 - 5 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla and lemon zest, if using, and beat until incorporated.

Add the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake for 1 to 1 hour 15 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely. (The cake is cooled in the pan first for about 20 minutes so the cake has time to set. The cake may collapse if you try to remove it from the pan too early.)

Serves 10 - 12 people.

Will keep several days well wrapped at room temperature and over a week when refrigerated. Can also be frozen.

Recipe:

3 cups (420 grams) all purpose flour

1 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups (340 grams) (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1-8 ounce (226 grams) package cream cheese, room temperature

3 cups (600 grams) superfine or castor sugar

6 large eggs, room temperature

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Zest of a lemon or orange (optional)

Note: To make your own superfine sugar - place 3 cups (600 grams) granulated white sugar in bowl of food processor. Process until very fine, about 30 seconds.

Join Our New & Featured Recipes Email List

New Recipes

Chocolate Shortbreads

Icebox Cookies

Pomegranate Jelly

Chocolate Pudding Cake

Top 40 Recipes of 2009*

*Top 40 Recipes based on actual site traffic from January 1, 2009 to December 30, 2009.


1. Chocolate Chip Cookies	2. Red Velvet Cake	3. Shortbread Cookies	4. Royal Icing	5. New York Cheesecake

6. Carrot Cake	7. Sugar Cookies	8. Vanilla Cupcakes	9. Banana Bread	10. Chocolate Truffles

11. Pound Cake	12. Ganache	13. Apple Crisp	14. Oatmeal Cookies	15. Pumpkin Pie

16. Apple Pie	17. Gingerbread Men	18. Pavlova	19. Coconut Macaroons	20. Biscuits

21. Cream Scones	22. Lemon Bars	23. Rum Balls	24. Snickerdoodles	25. Whipped Cream Frosting

26. Yellow Butter Cake	27. Pumpkin Cheesecake	28. Fruit Tart	29. Lemon Curd	30. Butter Tarts

31. Chocolate Crinkles	32. Thumbprint Cookies	33. Melting Moments	34. Boston Cream Pie	35. Chocolate Cupcakes

36. Nanaimo Bars	37. Mexican Wedding Cakes	38. Molten Chocolate Cakes	39. Almond Biscotti	40. Peanut Blossom Cookies

Joyofbaking.com on Facebook

Arabic Mandarin Dutch French German Hindi Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Norwegian Portuguese Russian Spanish Greek Swedish Finnish

Use of materials on Joyofbaking.com is entirely at the risk of the user and Joyofbaking.com, Stephanie Jaworski or Rick Jaworski will not be responsible for any damages directly or indirectly resulting from the use.

This website and the contents are not endorsed or sponsored by the owner of the "Joy of Cooking" series of books or its publisher Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Content in any form may not be copied or used without written permission of Stephanie Jaworski, Joyofbaking.com. Students and non profit educators may use content without permission with proper credit.

A baking resource on the Internet since 1997