Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe
Best Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe – Learn How to Make Pound Cake light and fluffy. Our Easy Pound Cake requires only 8 ingredients (mostly pantry staples) + is great with toppings!
Cream Cheese Pound Cake
When I think about need-to-know holiday recipes, a good classic pound cake is always at the top of my list.
A pound cake is the perfect simple dessert. It’s rich and buttery, with a delicate vanilla flavor and tight moist crumb.
It’s a hearty no-fuss cake you don’t have to decorate or worry about transporting to events.
Our Cream Cheese Pound Cake is a marvelous platform for creativity. Although it tastes amazing on its own, you can mix add-ins into the batter before baking, or dress it up with toppings and sauces!
Our Best Pound Cake Recipe
Why do I think Cream Cheese Pound Cake is the best?
It’s because of what the cream cheese does to the flavor and texture of the pound cake…
Pound Cakes are meant to be heavy cakes. It’s said the original pound cake recipe was made with one pound each of flour, sugar, eggs, and butter.
However, pound cakes can be a little too dense and heavy, in my opinion. That’s where the cream cheese comes in.
Adding cream cheese to the cake batter lightens and lifts the batter while baking, because cream cheese tends to puff as it bakes. This makes the pound cake slightly softer and airier than traditional pound cake.
It also adds a very mild twang to the otherwise pure rich vanilla-butter flavor. The little bit of tanginess balances the flavors, so the pound cake does not taste too sweet.
What Ingredients You Will Need
If you get anxious about holiday baking, this Easy Pound Cake Recipe is a great place to start. You only need a few key ingredients to make something that tastes impressive.
- Butter – Softened. Always go with unsalted butter when you have the choice.
- Cream cheese – Softened. Full fat. To enhance the flavor and texture.
- Sugar – To dust the pan and sweeten the pound cake.
- Flour – The base of the batter.
- Eggs – To bind and lift the batter.
- Vanilla extract – For deep nostalgic flavor.
- Baking Powder – To help the cake rise.
- Salt – To enhance the overall flavor.
The Perfect Pound Cake Pan
I like to bake pound cakes in a bundt pan, because it creates a larger cake with a decorative finish.
Also, bundt pans usually have a good non-sticking coating on the inside that makes it easy to flip the cake out of the pan.
However, if you do not own a bundt pan, you can make this recipe in two standard 9-inch loaf pans. In loaf pans, the baking time should be reduced to 70-80 minutes.
How To Make Pound Cake
Ready to learn how to make a perfect pound cake? This Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe is so easy to make, it will become your new go-to dessert!
- Grease and Sugar the Pan. Instead of flouring the pan with pound cake, I like to grease the pan (smear the inside with butter) then coat it with sugar. Just shake the sugar around until it covers all the butter. This gives the outside of the cake a crisp glistening crust!
- Cream the Butter, Cream Cheese, and Sugar. Creaming is beating the ingredients on high speed until they are very light and fluffy. This helps make the cake light and fluffy as well! Creaming usually takes several minutes, so be patient.
- Mix Slowly. Then turn the mixer on low and beat in the rest of the ingredients. Be sure to turn the mixer off as soon as the cake batter is smooth. Pro Tip: Mixing the batter too long gives it a tough texture.
- Pour and Bake! Pour the cake in the pan and bake. Pound cakes are dense and take some time in the oven. This is another opportunity to practice patience. *wink*
Get The Full (Printable) Easy Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe Below. Enjoy!
Other Homemade Toppings
Once you bake homemade pound cake from scratch, you might want to dazzle it up when it’s time for dessert.
Here are a few topping ideas
- Salted Caramel Sauce
- Chocolate Ganache
- Chocolate Gravy
- Warm Blueberry Sauce
- Raspberry Syrup
- or Fresh Cut Fruit
How To Make The Glaze For Easy Pound Cake
You can also make a simple glaze to pour over the pound cake by mixing…
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 – 4 tablespoons milk (or heavy cream for a thicker glaze)
- 1-2 teaspoons flavor extract (This could be vanilla, lemon, rum, coconut, strawberry, etc.)
Be sure to whisk the glaze well, so there are no clumps. Then pour or drizzle over the cake.
If the cream cheese cake is warm, the glaze will most likely soak into the cake. If you want it to sit up on top of the cake, make the glaze very thick, using less liquid and more powdered sugar. Then wait until the cake is completely cool to apply the glaze.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Is My Cake Taking So Long To Bake?
Pound cakes do take a long time to bake. However, if yours is taking longer than expected, you may have a faulty oven thermostat.
Place a new hanging oven thermometer off the center rack in your oven, and adjust the temperature accordingly. (Your oven manual, or youtube, can show you how to recalibrate your oven.)
Can You Freeze A Moist Pound Cake?
Absolutely! Wrap it very well with plastic wrap, then a layer of foil, and freeze for up to 6 months.
Can You Add Ingredients To The Cream Cheese Cake to Make It Chunky?
Sure! Try not to mix in any ingredient that would add extra moisture (like chopped fruit). However, you can certainly add in chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or dried fruits.
Do I Need to Keep the Cake in the Fridge?
No, this cake can stay out at room temperature for 3 to 5 days, but you can keep it in the fridge if you would like to. Wrap it well and refrigerate for up to 10 days.
Looking For More Festive (Yet Easy) Cake Recipes?
- Classic Texas Sheet Cake Recipe
- Buster Bar Ice Cream Cake Recipe
- Apple Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting Recipe
- The Best Gooey Butter Cake Recipe
- Kahlua Coffee Cake Recipe
- Homemade Strawberry Cake from Scratch Recipe
- Lemon Ricotta Cake (Crepe Cake Recipe)
- Easy Magic Custard Cake Recipe
- Best Lemon Buttermilk Cake Recipe
- Perfect Southern Caramel Cake Recipe (with Salted Caramel Frosting)
- Better Than Sex Cake (Retro Cake Recipe)
- Best Carrot Cake Recipe
More Easy Pound Cake Recipes
- Pumpkin Pound Cake with Chocolate Ganache Recipe
- Pecan Praline Pound Cake Recipe
- Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake Recipe
- Mint Chocolate Chip Pound Cake Recipe
- Green Chile Peach Pound Cake Recipe
Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened (3 sticks)
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 3 cups granulated sugar, divided
- 6 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (stir in bag, spoon in cup, level)
Instructions
- Set out the butter, eggs, and cream cheese to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Move one oven rack to the center of the oven and remove any racks above it.
- Pull out a standard 12-cup capacity bundt pan. Grease the bundt pan with extra butter or shortening, then scoop 1/4 cup sugar into the pan and shake it around until the fat is well coated in sugar. Dump out any excess sugar. Set aside.
- Place the softened butter and cream cheese in the bowl on an electric. Beat on high until the mixture is totally smooth. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula, then add the remaining 2 3/4 cups sugar. Beat on high again for 3-5 minutes to cream the ingredients until very light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl again.
- Turn the mixer on low and beat in the eggs, vanilla extract, baking powder, and salt. Then slowly add the flour a little at a time, until fully combined. Once the batter is smooth, turn off the mixer, as to not overmix the batter.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Bake on the center rack for 80-90 minutes. After 80 minutes, test the cake by inserting a toothpick deep into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, take the pound cake out of the oven.
- Let the cream cheese pound cake rest in the pan for 15 minutes. Then carefully flip the cake onto a platter or baking rack.
I would never think to add cream cheese to cake, but this is the most perfect pound cake ever!
The texture of this cake is perfection – love the simplicity of a good bundt!
I must admit, this by far is the best cheese cake pound cake I made. I did half the batter as cupcakes. As soon as they came out the oven, the cupcakes were devoured before I could count to five. Presently, everyone is waiting for the pan version to finish. Looks like I’ll be making another batch tomorrow. Thank You!
Will be trying this for thanksgiving, have not baked a cake in over 20 years. Thanks for your recipe and tips. Taking my kitchen back from my wife!😇
This was easy and delicious! Thank you. I will be making it again.
Made this recipe but made a couple changes. Firstly I only used 1 cup of sugar. My family does not like really sweet breads/cakes. Secondly substituted almond extract in place of vanilla. OMG everyone loved it. Not too heavy and with the lower amount of sugar in the bread and the sugar ‘melted’ on top it was delicious.
I was going to cut the sugar in half but just saw your comment. So 1 cup was plenty sweet?
Easy and delicious. Very surprised to use sugar instead of flour to coat pan. Nice goldencolor,tender , and not overly sweet.
Moist
Baked it today and it turned out beautiful, just drizzled icing on top and let it run, can’t wait to eat a piece, most definitely will use this recipe again.😄
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Made this pound cake yesterday-my only difficulty was finding a mixing bowl big enough to hold the ingredients! Cake turned out moist, tasty, and with a really good crumb. Cake was done at the 80 minute check time. Day 2 and it is still pretty moist and a perfect pairing with fresh strawberries and peaches!
Wonderful recipe. Thanks for sharing !
I added chocolate toffee chips
Hello. I have a 6 cup bundt pan. If I half the recipe (or back it in 2 parts?), how do I adjust the cooking time? Thanks!
Hi Josephine!
I would guess 35-45 minutes. However, check it at the 30 minutes mark to make sure you don’t overbake it. Please let me know how it turns out! :)
So amazing! Add some who-cream and strawberries and you have a delicious little dessert!
I really loved this pound cake! It was so moist and totally delicious.
Pound cake is the best, I love this version with the cream cheese. So good!
Pound cake is one of my favorite things in life and this recipe is amazing! The cream cheese adds the best flavor and texture!