Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This cake deserves the title of Perfect Pound Cake. It’s simple to make, and the cream cheese seems to give it exactly the right tang and texture. Despite the typical and expected pound cake density on your fork, there is a surprising lightness in the tasting which is hard to describe other than by saying a glass of milk wasn’t required to wash it down as so often is the case with pound cake!

Don’t skip the lemon glaze, it really turns this dessert into something special and there is enough glaze to be quite generous for both loaves. I thought the glaze was the perfect touch. Adding lemon zest to the batter might be really nice!

And the recipe requires only ingredients you’re likely to have on hand.

Although both loaf pans I used were 9-by-5-inches, one was a bit deeper than the other. I preferred the resulting shape of the smaller, shallower pan, but both loaves were delicious, lovely, were easily removed from their pans without leaving any cake behind, and sliced up beautifully into about 12 slices per loaf. On the third day, this pound cake was still delicious and moist after being left wrapped in plastic at room temperature.

Buttery, moist, and, dare I say, decadent? More than just the usual descriptors for pound cake. This cream cheese pound cake checks off all of those boxes. It has an addictive, rich flavor almost akin to shortbread. I have taste-tested this recipe on friends, and they are already clamoring for my recipe. This will be my new go to pound cake recipe!

The amount of salt, which initially seemed like a lot, is perfect. I used fine sea salt and there was no saltiness whatsoever. It gives the cake a depth of flavor so that it just does not just read as “sweet.” It’s perfect by itself or can take on versatility with a variety of toppings. With two loaves at my disposal, I experimented once with serving topped with a lemon and blueberry compote. A dollop of whipped cream finished it off. I also made pound cake croutons. Yes—I made a good thing even better. I cut the cake into cubes and browned it in a pan with a little butter. I served this atop ice cream and finished it off with a chocolate drizzle.

The cake was a little persnickety to make—at least for me. Hopefully someone will be able to learn from my initial challenges. The first time I made this, the top began to brown too quickly. I needed to tent it after it had been in the oven only 30 minutes. This resulted in a cake whose top was beautifully golden and interior moist. The sides and top were overly brown bordering on burnt. I headed to the internet to do a little research on what could have possibly caused this.

After reading several posts, I found out that the loaf pans that I had chose, glass, often can cause overbrowning in those areas. It was suggested that I either reduce the oven temp by 25°F and cook the cakes longer or use a shiny metal pan. I chose to try the recipe again with metal pans. When I went to pop them in the oven, I realized something that I hadn’t noticed before. My oven rack was in the lower position. I had failed to move it after making a turkey. Before putting my pans in, I repositioned the rack to the middle position. Voila—perfectly golden tops and sides. I still needed to tent the cake, but I didn’t need to adjust the baking time.

The cake had a tight crumb with a sweet crunchy top and sides. I didn’t make the lemon glaze as the cake had just the right amount of sweetness.

This cream cheese pound cake was quick to put together. Using room temperature ingredients, it took about 15 minutes from mixing to oven ready. The ingredient measurements were spot on. The cake baked for 75 minutes in a convection oven, producing a nicely crisped top without the use of a foil tent. The result was perfect! One loaf of this cake would serve 6 with 2 slices each. It complements a good cup of English tea. I used an Emile Henry loaf pan and Bakers Joy and the cake popped out of the pan after cooling for 10 minutes with no sticking!

With the addition of cream cheese, this may not be a purist’s pound cake, but it makes a great-tasting dessert. Both the flavor (rich and buttery) and the texture (smooth and tightly fine-crumbed) seem to improve over time, becoming more deeply flavored and evenly moist the following day.

The recipe is as straightforward as any traditional pound cake. In addition to having room-temperature butter and cream cheese (I left them overnight on the kitchen counter), I suggest you use room-temperature eggs (an hour out of the fridge).

I don’t have a standing mixer, so I used an electric hand-held beater to whip the egg, cream cheese, and sugar mixture. It took a full 8 minutes until it became pale—almost off-white—and fluffy.

I made half the lemon glaze (1 cup confectioners’ sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice) for 1 loaf to serve that day and froze the other loaf unglazed. Next time I make this cake, I’d like to try a little almond extract in addition to vanilla, and make the glaze with orange juice.

A lovely, simple cream cheese pound cake. The lemon glaze really makes it special. Very tasty. I made a half batch so I only made one pound cake. I did end up having to tent the cake as it was browning really quickly.

I think this is a great basic cream cheese pound cake recipe. The texture was nice and dense with a tight but tender crumb.

My cake had a crispy, crackly crust. I did some research and, apparently, this is actually a characteristic that some people love and aim for! I’m not sure if it was how much air I beat into the butter, cream cheese, and eggs, but I would love to conduct further experiments on this. Time to bust out those baking textbooks! I would advise using parchment and going with a lighter colored loaf pan. I sprayed my pans really well, but had some difficulty removing them and the outside got quite dark because I used darker pans.

This pound cake makes a lovely dessert with the addition of some sugared berries and unsweetened whipped cream.

I’ve never made pound cake before so I was drawn to this recipe given its simplicity and short ingredient list. Also, I think it was interesting that cream cheese was included, which I believe really helped with the overall texture of the cake. The cake came out moist, not too dense, and not overly sweet.

I didn’t think the flavor or consistency of the cream cheese pound cake changed over several days. The consistency of the cake was quite dense but moist and it had a creamy taste. My lemon drizzle topping seemed runnier than in the picture, but perhaps the picture was taken after the drizzle had set more than mine had.

The cream cheese pound cake turned out fluffy and delicious. I will certainly use this recipe again the next time that I want to make a perfect pound cake.

I didn’t put the lemon glaze on top. We ate it with strawberries and whipped cream, and it made a delicious base for strawberry shortcake. As stated in the recipe, the this made two 9-by-5-inch loaves with no overage during cooking. I baked the loaves until they were golden brown on top and the cake tester came out with a few crumbs when stuck in the middle of each loaf. I baked the cakes for 65 minutes. I had no problem with them getting too brown or excess batter overflowing the loaf pans. I let the loaves cool completely about 1 1/2 hours, and I had no problem getting the loaves out of the pan.