Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Easter breakfast anyone? Yeah, this is totally what I’m having. Lets start the day with sugar, sugar, and more sugar so about halfway through church we’ll be falling asleep….Need…..more …..sugar!

I can’t wait to show you Joslyn’s adorable dress- all decked out with a matching necklace, tights, the whole get-up.

So Justin, you HAVE to snag me a picture. If he fails, Mom this duty falls on you! Put your camera in your purse right now so you don’t forget!

Meanwhile I’ll be secretly praying none of you finish your entire Easter basket in one setting without that extra dose of insulin (don’t pretend, I know you do it…), because you’ll be visiting me on Easter instead.

“Hello? Mrs. Keller? I need you to talk to me.”

For this reason I urge you not to make this cake and eat it for breakfast. The rest of you, dig in!

I realize that this picture is somewhat deceiving in that this is a plain (as if that means boring) pound cake. The pink part of the swirl is just some good old artificial food coloring. Heck, its Easter- can you really eat something that isn’t pastel?

Cream Cheese Pound Cake
borrowed from Smitten Kitchen

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 package (8 ounces) Philadelphia brand cream cheese*, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly butter a 10-inch tube pan, then line the bottom with parchment paper. Alternately, you can use a 12-cup bundt pan, and simply butter and flour it.

2. Place the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl and beat with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar, increase the speed to high, and beat until light and airy, at least five minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the vanilla, almond, then the flour and salt all at once. Beat just until incorporated.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and shake lightly to even out the top. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, 1 1/4 hours. (If you are wanting a swirl like mine, divide the batter into two bowls. Add 1/2 tsp. red food coloring to one bowl, mix. Spoonful alternating colors of batter into pan. Run knife through twice vertically.)

4. Place the pan on a cake rack and cool for 20 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely. Serve at room temperature.

I also took her suggestion of basting the finished cake in a simple lemon syrup. I wanted a slight lemon flavor to the final cake. Dissolve equal parts water and sugar in a saucepan. Add zest and juice of one lemon. Bring barely to a boil, remove from heat. Let cool, then brush on cooled cake. This helps the cake last a few more days without drying out.

Oh yeah, the reason for using Philadelphia brand cream cheese is simple: it has consistent baking results and there is less water content than the other brands.

Love it! Thank you Deb!

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