Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Cream Cheese Pound Cake is sweet, buttery, moist, and delicious—the perfect pound cake! It’s an easy go-to cake for any occasion and it’s my family’s favorite cake!

How to Video for Cream Cheese Pound Cake is included at the end of this post.

Best Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Remember those cookbooks that churches or various ladies’ groups put together? Not even a hard cover book, just pages held together with a plastic binder? I have at least a dozen of those, some dating back to childhood. One of my favorites is Andersonville Skillet, a collection of recipes put together by the Andersonville Guild back in 1980 — a book used so much it no longer has a cover.

Andersonville is a very small town, you may have heard of it a time or two in history class, and its inhabitants are just good country folks. Thus, this collection has a lot of old country recipes, like chicken pie and fried chicken.

The most interesting chapter is the last one, titled Dishes of Yesteryear. I don’t cook much from this chapter, as the choices range from Boiled Maypops to Souse to Possum Roasted with Sweet Potatoes (I am not kidding) to Liver Pudding — and all sorts of interesting things in between.

The possum aside, there are a few recipes in this cookbook that I love and cook often. One is the chocolate sheet cake, which is just like the chocolate sheet cake recipe that my Granny used. Another is the chicken pie, which is a quick and easy recipe for a comfort food dish.

Our family favorite from the cookbook is the Cream Cheese Pound Cake recipe, which makes the best pound cake I’ve ever had. It’s a recipe that I’ve been making for about twenty-five years, with a few adjustments along the way, such as butter instead of oleo. This cake is expected to grace the table at all family events.

Southern Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I’m not sure whether Cream Cheese Pound Cake, or even regular pound cake, originated in the South, but most Southerners will tell you their Mama made the best. Usually you’ll find the recipe in scripted handwriting, an heirloom passed from one generation to the next, with a lot memories attached to that little card.

For instance, you won’t go to a funeral in the South without seeing a pound cake somewhere. And it’s my go-to dish when taking food to someone who’s had a baby or just needs a little comfort food. Because the Cream Cheese Pound Cake is dense and heavy, it packs and travels well and keeps for days.

Pound Cake Pan

Let’s talk about the pan you’re going to cook your cake in. You can use a tube pan or a Bundt pan, just make sure it’s large enough to hold the batter without it spilling over in your oven.

You can also use a couple of loaf pans and fill them about 2/3 full, then just watch the cake and adjust your baking time accordingly.

How to Make Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I’ve made this cake so many times over the years that I no longer even pull out the recipe—it’s simple enough that after you make it a few times, you’ll have the whole process memorized!

The ingredients list couldn’t be more simple:

• Cream Cheese
• Butter
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Flour
• Salt
• Vanilla

For this recipe, you do NOT need to preheat the oven. I start with a cold oven. First, butter and flour the tube or Bundt pan.

Next, you’ll sift together the flour and salt and set aside. Start beating the butter and cream cheese at medium speed of electric mixer until mixed well and then beat at medium-high until creamy, about 8 minutes. It’s important to make sure the cream cheese is not lumpy and the mixture is creamy and well-blended.

Gradually add sugar, beating at medium-high for another 5 minutes. Now the batter should be very creamy and light—almost white—before you add anything else. Remember, it’s important to mix well to make sure all the cream cheese has been incorporated because it will not melt in the oven.

Add the eggs, one at a time on low to medium speed, mixing just until yellow disappears. Add vanilla. Add flour mixture to the batter, a little at a time, beating on low speed just until blended.

Be sure and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to get every bit.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan and place in a cold oven along with a 2 cup oven-proof measuring cup filled with water (about 1 ½ cups).

How Long to Cook Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This cake bakes for a long time! It’s different in every oven though. I’ve baked it in an oven where the cake took about an hour and forty-five minutes to cook and I’ve baked in an oven that took an hour and twenty minutes!

I suggest you start checking after about an hour and twenty minutes. Just stick a wooden pick into the pound cake and see how it looks—you want just a few wet crumbs clinging to the toothpick. Don’t overcook or it will be dry.

Altitude, humidity and all sorts of mysterious unknowns can affect the baking time of a cream cheese pound cake or any pound cake for that matter.

Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for twenty minutes then flip the cake onto a wire rack or platter.

You can then flip back onto a cake platter so that the bottom of the cake becomes the top if you’re using a tube pan or just leave it the way it comes out of the pan, which will look a little tidier.

And don’t worry about the cracks on the top crust. That’s just the love coming through. And the cracks are a perfect excuse for the cook to “tidy” up the cake. You know what that means! All those little pieces falling off the side have to go somewhere…

Enjoy the best Cream Cheese Pound Cake! Please share in the comments if you make this cake.

Lucy

4.64 from 11 votes

Print

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

1 hr 30 mins

Total Time

2 hrs

 

Cream cheese pound cake is sweet, buttery, moist, and delicious and easy to make. It's the perfect pound cake!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Yield: 20 servings

Calories: 365 kcal

Author: Lucy

Ingredients

• 8 oz. cream cheese, (use Philadelphia), softened
• 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (I only use Land O' Lakes unsalted)
• 3 cups granulated sugar (I like Domino's)
• 6 large eggs, room temperature
• 3 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups all-purpose flour (White Lily)
• 1/8 teaspoon table salt

Instructions

1. Do not preheat the oven. Butter and flour the large Bundt (12 cup) or tube pan. You may want to set the pan on a cookie sheet covered with foil in case the cake overflows while baking.
2. Sift together the flour and salt and set aside.

3. Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed of electric mixer until blended, then turn up to medium-high for about 8 minutes. Gradually add sugar, beating another 5-7 minutes on medium-high. The batter should get very creamy and light with no discernible pieces of cream cheese.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low to medium just until yellow disappears. Add vanilla. Add flour to batter, a little at a time, beating on low speed just until blended. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of bowl to blend every bit.

5. Pour batter into the prepared pan and place in cold oven along with a 2 cup oven-proof measuring cup filled with water (about 1 ½ cups).
6. Bake at 300° for 1 hour and 15-30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean or has just a few crumbs. Start checking about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
7. Let cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes then flip onto wire rack.

Recipe Notes

Using a dark, non-stick pan may affect baking time so check the cake earlier if that's what you have.

You might also like these favorite cakes:

Best Hershey’s Chocolate Layer Cake

Granny’s Chocolate Sheet Cake

Lemon Pound Cake