Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I have gone missing again I would have to admit…….not that I'm lazy to bake but…….just couldn't find the time to bake, to blog and to do most of what I like to do most recently, as I was being tied down so deep down with my work, sigh! Well, what to do, my 9-5 job is still my breadwinner, so couldn't afford to say "no" to it……therefore just have stick to it and follow with the rhythm …….if it goes low, then I will have a lot of time to do my stuff, but if it goes high (like now)…….I will just have to keep up with the pace :P

Anyway, no matter how busy I am, I still try once in awhile to squeeze in time, at least once a week to bake something , to heat up my oven and mixer………LOL. In fact sometimes, I like it when I heard my boys complaining to me saying, "Mummy, why you don't bake anything for us to bring to school lately? We hate to buy school canteen food." Hmm……I like the sound of that, hehe :P
By the way, coming back to this post, I actually can't quite remember when did I actually baked this, but I knew very well, it was very recent because after my little Angel's birthday project, I really didn't have the time to bake……unless I really squeezed in one very badly, ^-^  Well, who cares when, the main important is this cake is a really yummy and good one, a sure-keeper for me and I'm not going to hide it away from you, because I think you should try it. I remember hearing this from my MiL last year when I just started to bake, she said Pound Cake is just like Butter Cake. I'm not sure whether I have to agree with her or not, but when I googled on the internet, it says that Pound Cake got its name from the 'one pound' of each ingredients that it uses to make the cake………1 pound of sugar, 1 pound of eggs, 1 pound of flour and 1 pound of butter. Interesting huh? Can you imagine how rich and how big a cake with that measurement will be? LOL…..
Nowadays, I think this recipe has been altered by hundreds and many thousands and therefore, a Pound Cake is not made by using the above mentioned amount of ingredients already………but still more or less maybe. Anyway, back to this 'Cream Cheese Pound Cake' that I adapted the recipe from Smitten Kitchen , and the only thing that I opted out from the recipe was the 'Strawberry Coulis' as I don't think my kids and my in-laws would like that extra sauce for the cake. To tell you the truth, this cake turned out really good, both on texture and taste, in fact my my FiL complained that it was so soft, he couldn't even lift the cake from the plate……was that supposed to be good or bad? Hmmm………but my personal verdict was……it's really moist, very dense , the cream cheese blended in really well with the butter, therefore resulting a cake that is not very rich in cheese in taste, but just nice. I personally love it, I had 2 piece at one time and then swear I will not eat another piece again………haha, as to watch my waistline :P but I will definitely make this cake again.
Here is the actual recipe, I halve the recipe as I wanted to try out my newly bought 'Oval Shaped Cake tin', so I made two small cakes instead. You should try it:

CREAM CHEESE POUND CAKE 
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, credit goes to you, Deb! 

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 package (8 ounces) Philadelphia brand cream cheese*, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
**I added 1/2 tsp of lemon zest as I love the combination of cheese and lemon together

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F / 170°C. Lightly butter a 10-inch tube pan ( I used 2 small Oval shaped cake tin), then line the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Place the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl and cream with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar, increase the speed to high, and beat until light and airy, at least five minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the vanilla, then the flour and salt all at once. Beat just until incorporated.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and shake lightly to even out the top. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. (As I used 2 small Oval cake tin, my baking time was reduced to 50 minutes only).

4. Place the pan on a cake rack and cool for 20 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely. Serve at room temperature.

Happy Baking!