Cream Cheese Pound Cake
This delicious cream cheese pound cake has a soft and thick texture with a crunchy crust
Yield: 12 slices
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (fluffed, spooned and leveled)
- 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 6 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 (3.4 ounce) box vanilla instant pudding mix
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Measure flour into a medium bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, blend butter, cream cheese, and salt together on medium speed for 5 minutes. Mixture should become smooth and fluffier. Stop mixer and scrape down sides of bowl.
- Turn mixer on medium-low and slowly sprinkle in the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Once all sugar is added, increase speed to medium and blend for 5 minutes. Stop and scrape down bowl.
- Turn mixer on low speed and add eggs one at a time, letting each yolk disappear before adding the next egg. Turn off mixer as soon as eggs have incorporated.
- Whisk the previously measured flour to incorporate air. Then, with mixer on low speed, add the flour to the batter one-third at a time. Mix each addition of flour for about 30 seconds before adding the next. Once flour is mostly incorporated, stop and scrape down bowl.
- Sprinkle dry pudding mix into the batter then blend on low speed for 30 seconds, or just until incorporated. Stop and scrape down bowl.
- Add vanilla extract, then turn mixer on low speed. With mixer running, slowly drizzle in lemon juice and blend just until incorporated. Increase speed to medium for about 10 seconds just to bring everything together. Stop mixer.
- Scrape down the paddle and sides of bowl, then use rubber spatula or large spoon to gently finish stirring the batter by hand. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to eliminate any dry patches. (Just do a few rotations; do not overmix the batter!)
- Spray a large 15-cup bundt or tube pan with baking spray.* Transfer batter to pan and spread it out evenly. Gently tap the bottom of the pan on the counter a few times to remove air bubbles.
- Bake in preheated oven on middle rack, leaving enough space between racks for the cake to rise. Bake for 1 hour and 15-20 minutes, or just until knife inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.**
- Remove cake from oven and cool in pan for 30 minutes. Then, invert onto a serving dish and allow cake to finish cooling before cutting. Makes 12-14 servings.
Notes
*Make sure to use baking spray, not non-stick cooking spray. Baking spray contains flour. Alternatively, you can butter and flour your pan to prevent sticking.
**Do NOT open the oven before 1 hour has passed because it can cause your cake to sink in the center. Keep a close eye on the cake after 1 hour 15 minutes. If it is browning too fast, loosely tent it with aluminum foil.