Cream Cheese Pound Cake

3.88 from 73 votes

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Cream Cheese Pound Cake is the perfect pound cake – flavorsome, pillowy soft and moist. Baked in a decorative pan, it’s an elegant afternoon tea cake that needs little decoration.

Prep Time20

Cook Time1 35

Total Time1 55

Course: Afternoon Tea, Dessert, Morning Tea

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bundt cake, cream cheese pound cake, pound cake, steam oven cake recipe

Servings:

Calories: 569kcal

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter 3 sticks, softened
2 cups superfine sugar caster sugar
2 lemons finely zested
1 lime finely zested
8 oz cream cheese full-fat, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract or paste
6 eggs large, at room temperature
3 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Regular Oven Method

Grease a 10-cup bundt or ring pan very well and set aside.
Preheat oven to 325°F/165°C, convection/fan forced setting (if you don’t have a convection setting, use 340°F/170°C).
Beat the butter, sugar and zest on medium speed in a stand mixer until it’s smooth and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
Add the cream cheese and beat until completely smooth and combined, then add the sour cream and vanilla, mixing until combined and creamy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl once or twice during the mixing.
Mix the eggs in one by one, letting each egg fully mix in before adding the next. The idea is to mix the eggs in without overbeating the mixture. It may appear curdled by the time all the eggs are added, but don’t worry as it will come back together once the flour is added.
Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix on low speed until just combined, then stop the mixer and give everything a final stir by hand with a spatula, making sure to get to the bottom of the bowl where the mixer blade may have missed.
Scrape the batter evenly into your greased pan and bang the pan on the counter once or twice to bring up any air bubbles. Bake until it tests clean with a skewer, about 1 hour and 35 minutes. If the cake looks like it’s browning too much, you can cover the top with aluminium foil partway through cooking.
Remove cake from the oven and allow to cool for about an hour in the pan, then turn out onto a serving plate and allow to cool completely. Don’t wait to turn it out until it’s cold, as it’ll stick in the pan (ask me how I know this!).
Either dust the cake with powdered sugar or glaze it with a mixture of powdered sugar and lemon or lime juice. For a glaze, you’ll need about 2 cups powdered sugar and enough juice to create a pouring cream consistency.

Combi Steam Oven Method

Grease a 10-cup bundt or ring pan very well and set aside.
Preheat oven to 320°F/160°C, combination steam setting. If your oven has variable steam, select 30% (if you don’t have variable steam, just select combination or convection steam setting at the correct temperature, and the oven will work out the humidity for you).
Beat the butter, sugar and zest on medium speed in a stand mixer until it’s smooth and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
Add the cream cheese and beat until completely smooth and combined, then add the sour cream and vanilla, mixing until combined and creamy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl once or twice during the mixing.
Mix the eggs in one by one, letting each egg fully mix in before adding the next. The idea is to mix the eggs in without overbeating the mixture. It may appear curdled by the time all the eggs are added, but don’t worry as it will come back together once the flour is added.
Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix on low speed until just combined, then stop the mixer and give everything a final stir by hand with a spatula, making sure to get to the bottom of the bowl where the mixer blade may have missed.
Scrape the batter evenly into your greased pan and bang the pan on the counter once or twice to bring up any air bubbles. Bake until it tests clean with a skewer, about 1 hour and 20 minutes. If the cake looks like it’s browning too much, you can cover the top with aluminium foil partway through cooking.
Remove cake from the oven and allow to cool for about an hour in the pan, then turn out onto a serving plate and allow to cool completely. Don’t wait to turn it out until it’s cold, as it’ll stick in the pan (ask me how I know this!).
Either dust the cake with powdered sugar or glaze it with a mixture of powdered sugar and lemon or lime juice. For a glaze, you’ll need about 2 cups powdered sugar and enough juice to create a pouring cream consistency.

Notes

You’ll see I’ve called for cake flour in this recipe. Cake flour has less protein than regular flour, which makes it bake up into a softer, more pillowy cake.
Use any combination of citrus zest you like for this cake. I had lemons and limes on hand, but it’s lovely with oranges or mandarins too.
I bake this cake in my favorite Nordic Ware bundt pan, though any bundt or ring pan will work as long as it has at least a 10 cup capacity. Otherwise divide the mixture and bake it in two loaf pans. I wouldn’t recommend baking this in a regular round pan as the outside of the cake will overcook before the middle is done.

Nutrition