Just a few simple ingredients and easy preparation produce this scrumptious Cold Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake – the most versatile dessert. Served plain, topped with fruit, or grilled, it’s perfect every time!
I’ve been thinking a lot about destiny, and how it relates to things we are passionate about, and whether we each are born with a specific purpose in life. You know, I think this is on my mind because my kids are each beginning to make decisions about their own lives’ directions. So, it brings back my own longstanding worry that there was something I missed along the way. Maybe there was some piece of information that might have told me the secret – you know, that I should – no, that I need – to be a shop owner, an astronomer, or a Chef. And that THIS is the thing that would provide joy and fulfillment.
Needless to say, I’ve always admired those people who just knew from childhood what their “calling” was. But I have to admit, I thought some of them were likely faking it – really, what 7-yr-old knows he is destined to be an Entomologist? What do you think? Destiny? Or Luck? Through a series of what I attribute to good decisions and some luck, I’ve pretty much “stumbled into” the careers I’ve had. But at the same time, I always knew there was something missing for me. I think the reason I express my creativity through cooking and writing is that if an individual recipe or post doesn’t work out, well, then, try another day. This feels good to me. No harm, no foul, right? There are other recipes to create. Maybe my previous career choices didn’t give me that freedom.
I’ve come to the conclusion that for many, if not most, of us, there isn’t just one answer. We can be many things, at different times, and have many different careers, countless interests, various passions.
Ok! Enough of that blather – so why are there pictures of pound cake along with this stream of random babble about my philosophies of life? It’s because this Cold Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake, like many of us, looks simple on the outside, but can be so so many different and wonderful things. It’s perfect sliced and eaten plain. Equally delicious grilled in a puddle of melted butter or topped with jam or fruit. You could cut it in cubes and make croutons. Or, you could French-toast it. Maybe make a delicious PB&J with slices of pound cake. So, you could make something new and interesting every day and enjoy them all equally.
Yes, this Cream Cheese Pound Cake is indeed a simile (or is it metaphor? Note use of the word “like” in the next sentence) for life. Like this cake, we can each be so many different things. If the first thing isn’t what we seek, we can move on to another. But like life, each shows us something we didn’t know before. Enjoy!
If you’d like to see more scrumptious cakes I’ve made, check out my Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting, or maybe this, seriously, the BEST Angel Food Cake you’ve ever had. Or my Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Looking for a Gluten-free Cake? Try this Lemon, Ricotta and Almond Cake. In a Fall mood? My Pumpkin Cake with Salted Penuche Icing – to die for! So MANY CAKES!
For tips on making the Perfect Pound cake, this article from Bon Apetit is a good list of things to remember.
Pin Perfect Cream Cheese Pound Cake for later->
Cold Oven Cream Cheese Pound Cake
This Cream Cheese Pound Cake is perfectly dense-textured, but moist and light flavored, a fairly traditional recipe with no chemical leaveners. The tang of the cream cheese is highlighted by a bit of lemon zest. This recipe provides 12-16 nice-sized servings, which is great because, it’s poundcake, there’s so many things to do with leftovers!
Perfect grilled in a puddle of butter, or served with fruit and whipped cream.
I’ve included a recipe for raspberry sauce that is out-of-this-world delicious, if you’re so inclined.
Special equipment: tube pan or bundt pan.
- Prep Time: 20 min
- Cook Time: 90 min
- Total Time: 110 min + cooling time
- Yield: 12-16 servings 1x
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Baking
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 1/2 c. (3 sticks, 12 oz.) Butter, room temperature
- 1 c (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, room temperature
- 3 c Granulated Sugar
- 6 Lg Eggs, room temperature
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 T Vanilla Extract (See Note 1)
- 3 c AP Flour
- 1/2 t Salt
For the Raspberry Sauce:
- 1 Pint Raspberries
- 1/3 c Granulated Sugar
- 1/3 c Water
- 1/4–1/3 c Raspberry Jam
- 1 t lemon juice
Instructions
Make the Cake
- DO NOT PREHEAT OVEN! Prepare baking pan by generously (greasing or) buttering, then flouring, making sure excess flour is removed.
- In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, at medium-high speed, cream together the cream cheese and butter, along with the sugar, until mixture is very light in color and fluffy, a full 3-5 minutes.
- Reduce speed to low. Add eggs, incorporating one at a time. Add in the Vanilla extract and lemon zest.
- At this point, you want to be careful to not overmix, for risk of a tough cake. So, keeping mixer at the lowest speed, add in the first 2 cups of flour and the salt, mixing until you can see only a few streaks of flour. Turn off mixer and fold in, by hand, the last cup of flour, again until just a few streaks of flour are visible. One last fold, then pour into prepared tube or bundt pan.
- Place pan in the middle of oven. Turn oven on to 300F. Bake 1 hour, 25 minutes to 1 hour, 40 minutes, until a wooden skewer comes out clean. In my oven, this cake took 90 minutes.
- Remove pan from oven. Cool the cake IN the pan for about 20 minutes, then carefully turn out or remove from the tube pan. Cool completely.
- While cake bakes, prepare the Raspberry sauce, if you are using.
Make the Raspberry Sauce
- Into a 2-qt saucepan, place the berries, sugar, and water. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn heat to simmer and simmer 20 minutes or so, until syrupy. Add the raspberry jam.
- Strain mixture over a fine-mesh strainer to eliminate the seeds.
- Add the lemon juice. Mix thoroughly. Cool. Refrigerate.
Notes
- Feel free to substitute 2 t almond extract, or 1-2 t lemon extract, or any other flavoring you might want!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/14 recipe
Keywords: Pound Cake, Cold Oven, heirloom recipe, raspberry sauce, cream cheese
Hi Laura my recipe for cream cheese pound cake is exactly as yours
But I add Baking Powder
How does it rise without baking powder
The cake is very yummy my family’s favourite
I have made this recipe twice. Both times I made a really simple strawberry sauce by slicing up fresh strawberries and stirring in a half cup of sugar and letting them ‘weep” for several hours. I used the lemon that I had zested for your recipe to squeeze in a tablespoon of lemon juice, stirred, and then poured the sauce and berries over slices of this cake. The flavor is amazing.
★★★★★
Hey there
I had to look myself-like 3x’s…
It’s w/ the flour…
Thanks, Wendy!
Hi, where does the salt come in?
Thanks.
Good catch, Lisha! So sorry! Go ahead and mix it with the flour, or add it with the first 2 cups flour put into the cake batter! so sorry I missed that!
I love pound cake recipes Laura, and your recipe sounds amazing. Adding cream cheese must create such delicious flavour and texture. This recipe I would absolutely love to try. Definitely saving and pinning!
Thanks, Ashika! Hope you get the chance! Thanks for visiting!
Lately, I’ve been thinking about my career path a lot. Perhaps, I should have chosen a culinary carer – I’d been thinking of it for many years (since I was a kid). Interestingly, I was pretty sure about my path when I was 10 or 15, but then I started to doubt myself and opted for another education. I have had some thinking about my second career recently, but then doubts again. It’s like “Okay, I’m pretty great home cook, but what if I’d be a very mediocre trained one?” Well, who knows – maybe I’ll tackle a new career in 10-20 years haha. This cake looks super delicious. I cannot say I’m a huge fan of pound cakes, but I do love incorporated cream cheese here. The texture must be amazing!
Ben,I totally understand that journey. Ive had strangely different careers, but I find I am best at the things I am passionate about, not just things I am “good” at. I have to say, with your creativity in the kitchen, you would make a fine chef! I think these days many of us have a 2nd or 3rd act in our career story. And you’re right, texture is awesome in this cake! Thanks for visiting and indulging my rambling thoughts!
Such a great post, Laura. I know what you mean…some people have it all figured out and know what they want to do from childhood. I think that we can have lots of interests and things we are good at, and maybe those things change over time. I also think that’s what makes life, and ourselves, interesting…don’t you 😉 ? I love blogging because I get to ‘meet’ different people and I get to share something I’m passionate about and enjoy. It’s such a creative outlet. Anywho, I can just tell from your pics that this pound cake is super moist and flavourful. Love the idea of grilling. I did that once before with a cake (and often with cornbread) and it really adds such a lovely textural component. Love to have a hunk right now with my lone coffee in front of me 🙂 Have a lovely upcoming weekend!!
Thank you, Dawn! I agree completely, that for many, if not most, our interests change over time, and for some (like me!) that is what directs the course of our lives. It is a good thing IMHO! Glad you love a grilled cake, like I do! Thanks for your visit and kind words!
One of my husband’s favorite desserts is poundcake Laura! I’ve got to try your recipe! I love it with the raspberry sauce too!
Thanks, Mary Ann! It’s certainly a favorite here, too!
That looks so plush and luscious Laura. I am in love with it! Pinning! xo
Thanks so much, Kim!
Awesome post Laura! That pound cake looks so inviting. I need to get some raspberries and try this recipe out! Thanks for a brilliant share.
Thank you, Neha! I appreciate your kind words, an hope you get the chance to try this yummy cake!
I remember as a kid loving those little sliced individually wrapped pound cakes from the convenience stores, They were always a favorite of mine. Now I try not to eat pound cake as much these days but this recipe is not helping! This looks soooo good!! I have to try it!!
Thanks, Jill! I remember those, too! Thanks for your visit!
Well my kids are fully launched and are raising their own, but I can’t relate. Around my son’s 7th birthday he announced he was going to study to be a Theoretical physicist. He stayed with that until high school after which changing his path many times. He majored in Math in Uni and went on to get his Masters. What does he do now? Successful in the food biz. So, your 7-yo is just where he thinks he’ll be for now.
Now, I must get in the kitchen and make that lovey pound cake to go with the fresh raspberries we picked yesterday.
Hi, Ron! Thanks for your wisdom, and honestly, it’s so refreshing to hear those stories so similar to my own. Hope you enjoy the pound cake and thanks so much for visiting!
I would like very much to be your neighbour so we could talk about how things are in our lives and have a slice or two …. Great post Laura. Love it ! Thank you !
Thank you so so much! That sounds like a great way to spend a long morning! Thanks for visiting!
Great post, Laura! Those are some really deep thoughts about philosophies of life…but then again, I get it. If you think back over our lives, there are some really key points that shaped things. And (at least for me) most of those points didn’t feel like points at the time. But they changed the direction of both personal and professional life. I agree with you that different things at different times is the way to go. As our lives change, our professional needs change, too.
Ah, enough rambling! This pound cake looks insanely delicious! I’ve loved pound cake ever since I was a little kid, but I must admit that I’ve never made a pound cake with cream cheese in it. I need to make this one ASAP!
Thanks, David! Glad you appreciate MY rambling! I totally agree with the idea of all of the points in our lives that seem to change everything, how we only recognize them looking back in time. Hmmm, I’m feeling another post coming along. Ha! I agree with you, Pound cake is a wonderful thing! Cream cheese adds some really great texture and a bit of a tang! Hope you give it a try! Thanks for visiting!
Love the sound of the cream cheese in this cake, I bet it gives it a fantastic flavour.
Caroline – cream cheese is about the best thing I’ve ever put into a cake. That’s saying a lot! It does give it a dreamy texture and a bit of a tang! Thanks for visiting!
I really enjoyed reading your post. I could have written it myself, and have had the exact same thoughts and questions again and again, especially since being off work with my last two children. I often wish I had that calling that others seem to have. It’s definitely why I’m blogging, like you! Thank you for making me feel like I’m not alone in that!! Also, this pound cake is just begging to be dressed up in so many different ways 😉
Thanks, Katherine! Glad we are of like mind on this one! You know, there is this podcast I really enjoyed. I referenced it in my No-Churn Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Pretzels post. It’s a Ted Talk, I felt I could totally relate to it. I hope you can check it out and would love to know what you think. The speaker is Emilie Wapnick. Anyway, glad you like this simple-appearing but so versatile and incomparable Pound Cake!