Cream Cheese Pound Cake

By Cookie67

Penzey's Recipe

Ingredients

• Use 12-cup angel food/tube pan or Bundt pan: Angel food pans are a little harder to deal with getting the cake out, but the top crispy part of the cake is extra delicious.
• 1 8 oz-ounce creams cheese (Neufchatel cheese or 1/3 lighter cream cheese also work)
• 3 sticks butter (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (or 1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp almond extract or 1 tsp finely grated lemon rind + 1 tsp lemon extract)
• 3 cups sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 6 large eggs
• 3 cups sifted cake flour

Preparation

Step 1

Have eggs, cream cheese and butter at room temperature. Preheat oven to 325, grease an angel food pan and set aside.
Cream together the cream cheese, butter and flavorings. Gradually add the sugar and salt. Cream until fluffy. Add the eggs one at time, mixing well after each egg. Add the flour one cup at a time, mixing well after each cup. Pour into the pan and bake at 325 for 1 1/2 hour. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

NOTE: This pound cake is delicious topped with fresh strawberries. The cake seems to improve with a short time in the freezer, which makes it a great make-ahead dessert.