Lemon Cream Cheese Pound cake : The BEST recipe for a Pound cake !!

I am not much of a baker. However badly I want to see myself as one, I hardly bake that much. For various reasons, the major one being – the more I bake, the more I eat. Both S and I have no self-control what so ever, and we end up finishing up any Dessert I prepare on weekends, just in an hour of its being ready. We don’t even keep it for another day, just in case we want to savour it the next day. No, nada ! Never been that optimistic ..

I saw this Cream Cheese Pound Cake recipe at Joy of Baking and I have to say, it's super. It is not too heavy - if you are wary of pound cakes - and has an absolutely lovely lemony zing to it. VERY nice! I give it 2 thumbs up. I did, however, do some tweaking - like halving the proportions, reducing the sugar, reducing the butter, and increasing the amount of cream cheese. Do try this at home, it’s one of the best cakes I have ever tasted. Well, I meant the among the ones I have made so far. The last proper cake I baked and posted on the blog was this “LemonYoghurt Poppy seeds cake” which was amazing btw. 

What is nice about this cake is that it has the fragrance/moistness of a butter cake without the heavy richness of one. The texture is very tender and fine-crumbed. And I like how it contrasts so beautifully with the buttery yellow interior that's soft and moist and rich with cream cheese, butter, and eggs. Lemon is the flavouring in this pound cake, along with a little lemon zest which provides a nice citrus flavour plus it helps to balance both the sweetness and richness of the cake

So here it is – A fantastic cake recipe on the Blog after a long long time. I can’t wait to try more versions of this Pound cake, if only it didn’t use that butter !! *Sigh*

Prep Time: 10-12 minutes

Baking Time:  50- 60 minutes

Serves: 4-6 people

Cuisine:-  English, may be ?

Spice Level:   Sweet , tangy

Recipe Level:  Moderate

Shelf Life: Up to 4 days at room temperature, and 7 days in Fridge , can also be frozen.

Serving Suggestion: Perfect with Strong Coffee !! But that’s just me, enjoy it with Tea if you like ..

Nutritional Facts:- Don’t think any, but it’s just unbelievably tasty !

Recipe Source: from Sara Foster's The Foster's Market Cookbook and sighted at Joy of Baking

What you need?

• 1 ½ cup All-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 150g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 140g package cream cheese, room temperature
• 200g castor sugar ( about 1 ½ cup ) 
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp pure Lemon Extract 
• Zest of a lemon or orange, little more than a tsp

How to make?

• Preheat oven to 175°C and place rack in center of oven. Butter and line an 8-inch round cake tin. I used a 6-inch square cake tin and it was too small, resulting in the top doming a bit and cracking. If you are using a square tin, a 7-inch one should be just right. For Bundt pans, I have no idea what size. Anyone?                                                                                                                                                                          * A side note: If a recipe calls for round tins, and you want to use square ones, always remember to use 1-inch smaller ... for the simple reason that square tins hold more batter than round ones of the same size.

• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, in three additions, beating well after each addition. Continue beating on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the Lemon extract and zest and beat until incorporated.
• Add the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
• Bake for about 50 mins. Do check at the 30 min-mark for over-browning.
• Once done, remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely. (The cake is cooled in the pan first for about 20 minutes so the cake has time to set. The cake may collapse if you try to remove it from the pan too soon.)
• This cake will keep several days at room temperature and one week when refrigerated. Can also be frozen 

 Notes:

• I covered the cake batter with a sheet of aluminium foil and only removed it after 30 mins to brown the top. It was a very small cake, so I was careful not to let the top burn.
• The key lies in the beating of the eggs, so make sure you really do get that pale yellow creaminess before you start adding the rest of the ingredients.
• We would have finished up the entire cake for tea if not for the fact that I deliberately saved a slice overnight to see if it retained it softness. It did.

Linked to Bake Fest -34 hosted by Full Scoops and started by Cooks Joy