Cream Cheese Pound Cake – 🎂👏🏻 If you thought pound cake was always dry, think again! Try my EASY foolproof recipe for a perfectly moist pound cake that’s anything but dry! Tangy cream cheese is the secret weapon and it’s a lovely compliment to the buttery, vanilla pound cake. PERFECT for holidays and parties like Christmas parties, New Year’s Eve, birthdays, anniversaries and more.
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Easy Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe
I have a glazed classic pound cake recipe on my site that I made years ago and decided it was time to make another one. This time I used cream cheese in it and let me tell you, if you’ve ever felt that pound cake could be dry, I promise you, this pound cake is anything but dry!
You’re going to love this dessert because:
- Rather than using 1 pound of butter (which is what a traditional pound cake uses, hence the name pound cake), I swapped half the butter for cream cheese and it was a great call that keeps this cake moist, tender, and with a lovely melt-in-your-mouth texture and crumb.
- The tangy cream cheese is a great compliment to the vanilla extract as well as the almond extract in the recipe. While almond extract is optional, it literally perfumes the cake with such lovely flavor that you won’t want to skip it!
- Easy enough for novice bakers, but tastes fancy enough for celebrations. Impress your guests for Christmas parties or New Year’s Eve parties, birthdays, and anniversaries alike.
- I use a simple powdered sugar dusting on top and some slivered almonds, but there’s so much flexibility here. Serve your pound cake with fresh fruit, hot fudge, caramel sauce, and more. See the serving section below for more ideas.
Ingredients in The Best Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe
- Unsalted butter – At room temp. Room temperature, properly softened ingredients are the only way to go for pound cake.
- Cream cheese – At room temp. And it’s very important that you use full fat cream cheese that’s sold in a brick. Do NOT use cream cheese that’s reduced fat, lite, fat free, labeled as “spreadable”, or sold in a tub. Those types of cream cheese products have high water contents, not enough fat, and your pound cake won’t turn out.
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Almond extract – This is optional but I love it so much! It adds another layer of flavor that you can’t get from vanilla extract alone.
- Large eggs – At room temp.
- Cake flour – Wondering about using all-purpose flour? See the FAQs below.
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Confectioners’ sugar and/or slivered almonds – Optional for dusting and decorating the cake for serving.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
Recipe FAQs
It’s very important that you use full fat cream cheese that’s sold in a brick. Do NOT use cream cheese that’s reduced fat, lite, fat free, labeled as “spreadable”, or sold in a tub. Those types of cream cheese products have high water contents, not enough fat, and your pound cake won’t turn out.
I am not an advocate of using cake flour unless it’s really necessary – and in the case of this pound cake recipe, it’s necessary. It’s lighter than all-purpose flour and helps allow the pound cake stay lighter rather than denser and more heavy. I’ve never tried making pound cake with a gluten-free flour substitution so I can’t say how it will work or not, and any modifications you’d need to make.
Use a 10 to 12-cup Bundt pan. Sometimes they’re labeled and sold by inches and in that case a 9 to 10-inch pan is what you want. I haven’t experimented with making mini pound cakes in mini Bundt pans. You’d need to test and trial that on your own.
No, it’s not recommended because pound cake batter is heavy and using a tube pan helps air to circulate better during the baking process so that the cake will bake through properly and evenly and not burn.
How To Make Pound Cake with Cream Cheese
- Beat: Beat the butter for a couple minutes in a large bowl or bowl of your stand mixer. Then add the cream cheese and beat it into the butter making sure it’s free from lumps. Tip – Do not shortcut beating process because this helps create a better, lighter pound cake. Then beat in the sugar and extracts.
- Eggs: Add the eggs, one at a time to the mixture, beating after each addition. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl. Tip – Sometimes I use a whisk as shown in the photos to avoid overmixing for both this step and adding the dry ingredients.
- Dry ingredients: Add the flour slowly, while beating on low. And then add the baking soda and salt. Tip – Now is the point where you don’t want to overmix! It will lead to a dry, heavy, denser cake.
- Bake: Transfer the batter into a greased or sprayed Bundt or tube cake pan and bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 25 minutes. See Baking Tips below!
- Cool and invert: Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 30 minutes before inverting. Optionally dust with confectioners’ sugar or slivered almonds before slicing and serving.
Serving and Storage
Serving: I like to dust my vanilla pound cake with confectioners’ sugar and slivered almonds. Other options include homemade jam, hot fudge, salted caramel sauce, fresh berries, strawberry sauce, raspberry sauce, lemon curd, or whatever tickles your fancy!
At room temp: This recipe will keep in an airtight container for Bundt cakes for up to 4-5 days. I don’t like to store in the fridge because I find it just dries the cake out.
Freezer: You can freeze pound cake. It will keep airtight in the freezer for up to 3 months in a large freezer bag. Note that of course any baked good is better when it’s freshly made and served. However, freezing is an option if you wind up with a lot of extra cake.
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Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer (or handheld electric mixer)
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature (must be full fat, brick-style cream cheese, nothing lite or in a tub that’s labeled as ‘whipped’ or ‘spreadable’)
- 2 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 to 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract, optional but highly recommended
- 6 large eggs, at room temperature
- 3 cups cake flour, sifting optional, measure it using the spoon and leveled method; do not use all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- confectioners' sugar, optional for dusting (see Notes below for other ideas)
- slivered almonds, optional for seving (toasted if desired, easy to omit if you don't care for nuts)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F and spray your Bundt pan or tube pan VERY well with cooking spray (I like floured cooking spray); or grease and flour the pan. Make sure to get all the nooks and crannies of the pan so your cake doesn't stick later. Set aside.
- Mixing – To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and handheld electric mixer), add the butter, and beat on high speed for about 2 minutes. Stop and scrape down the bowl.
- Add the cream cheese and beat to incorporate into the butter, about 1-2 minutes. Stop and scrape down the bowl.
- Add the sugar and beat to incorporate, about 1-2 minutes. Stop and scrape down the bowl.
- Add the extracts and beat momentarily to incorporate.
- With the mixer running on medium-low speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, stopping after each addition to allow it to fully incorporate before adding the next. Tip – While it's important to add the eggs one at a time, they'll incorporate quickly and it's important not to overmix or overbeat at this point or the cake will be tougher and denser.
- Dry Ingredients – With the mixer running on medium-low to low speed, slowly add the flour and then add the baking soda and salt. Tip – Again, it's important to mix only enough to incorporate the dry ingredients, but don't overmix or the cake will be tougher and denser.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared pan, and rap or lightly "drop" the cake pan on the countertop a tiny bit to ensure there are no large air pockets.
- Baking – Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 25 minutes, or until a toothpick or long wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Baking Tips – This is a large cake and it's a dense batter. The secret to pound cakes are to bake them "low and slow". Meaning, don't be tempted to turn your oven hotter than 325F and while I find that 1:18-1:20 is the sweet spot in my oven, the exact baking time will depend on your oven, cake pan, climate, etc. If it takes longer to bake than 1:25, then bake it as long as is necessary. Start checking the cake at about 1-hour into the baking time just in case your oven runs hot. However, don't open the oven door until at least 50-60 minutes have elapsed because the cold air that comes in could result in a sinking or cracked cake later. Resist the urge to "check on it" unnecessarily. If you feel that your cake is browning a bit too quickly on the outside, I recommend using a large sheet of foil and draping that over the entire cake and Bundt pan while it continues to bake in order to shield the exterior surface of the cake from the intensity of the oven heat.
- Cooling, Inverting, Releasing – Allow the cake to cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before inverting it over a plate or over a cake stand. Cake Releasing Tips – If you sprayed your pan well with cooking spray or greased it well, and your pan is a decent quality nonstick Bundt pan, your cake should release just fine. 1. If it seems a little stubborn, carefully take a butter knife or paring knife and cut around the top surface and it should slide out. 2. If that doesn't do the trick, a bit of gentle "banging" or wrapping down firmly onto your cake stand or serving platter should work. 3. For very stubborn cakes, invert it and place the serving platter underneath, and then place a very hot/wet kitchen towel over the top for 10-15 minutes (wet the towel with hot water, put it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds until very steamy; use caution so you don't burn yourself with the steam). The heat/steam from the towel will help the cake release from the pan and plop down onto the serving platter.
- Allow the cake to cool for at least 1 hour after you invert it before slicing and serving. Optionally, and as desired, dust the cake prior to serving with confectioners' sugar, and/or slivered almonds. See the Notes below for more serving suggestions.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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