Lemon Cream

What I Love About This Recipe

When I first started baking, I stayed away from pound cakes. I didn’t actually like the pound cakes I had tried. Often they were so dry.

Eventually, I got up the courage (and the desire) to give it a try. I reworked an old family recipe for lemon cream cheese pound cake and… wow. I mean WOW! This stuff is good. Here are some of the things I loooove about this cake:

• Dense buttery flavor
• Sweet lemony glaze
• Moist deliciousness

How To Make Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe

1. Make the cake: beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and mix, then add eggs one at a time.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Add it to the butter mixture, alternating with lemon juice.
3. Beat the batter.
4. Add the rest of the cake ingredients.
5. Pour the batter into the bundt pan. Bake.
6. Make the glaze: mix together the powdered sugar and lemon juice.
7. Pour the glaze over the cake.

Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake Ingredients

• Butter: I like to use Challenge unsalted butter (no endorsement!). At room temperature.
• Cream Cheese: Use regular, full-fat cream cheese. At room temperature.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar.
• Eggs: Large eggs, at room temperature.
• Flour: I use Gold Medal.
• Salt: Tables salt.
• Lemon: Let’s Talk Lemon! Part of the reason this recipe is so delicious is that it uses three different lemon flavoring components: lemon zest, lemon juice, and lemon extract. These three lemon components in combination really intensify the flavor of the pound cake—using lemon juice alone just can’t compare.
• Vanilla Extract: I use pure vanilla extract, not imitation.

Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake Tips

• Room Temperature:  I find that it helps to start with room-temperature ingredients. The butter and cream cheese should be soft and spreadable but not melted. Even eggs and lemon should be brought up to room temp before getting started.
• Adding eggs: Also, be sure to add the eggs one at a time so the batter doesn’t curdle.
• Measuring: Accuracy is incredibly important in a good pound cake. Extra sugar might cause the cake to fall. Adding extra flour might make it dry.
  • (Tip: to ensure that you don’t add extra flour, use the “fluff and spoon” method rather than just scooping it up. Fluff up the flour with a fork, then use a spoon to put it in your measuring cup. Level off with a knife. This will make sure the flour isn’t so densely packed and you don’t add extra.)
• Mixing: Make sure to beat your sugar, butter, eggs, and cream cheese together until the mixture is light and fluffy. It should be noticeably lighter in color. However, you also don’t want to overbeat the eggs. Overbeating may cause the batter to overflow from the sides of the pan when baked.
• Adding Baking Powder: Some folks recommend adding baking powder to the batter. I don’t really think it’s necessary, but it doesn’t hurt anything to add it. Use your own discretion. I personally leave it out of this recipe.
• Greasing Bundt Pan: There are a few different methods to effectively grease your Bundt pan. Butter is a great way that will really contribute to the overall flavor of the cake.
• Some recipes will have you use flour in combination with butter. A simple spray-on cooking spray will also work. The best one I’ve found is Pam baking spray with butter (not a paid endorsement).
• Batter: Once the batter has been poured into the Bundt pan, tap the pan onto the counter a few times to help the batter settle and remove any air pockets.
• Name-Brand: When making this lemon pound cake with cream cheese it helps to use name-brand ingredients. I know this sounds a little finicky but there is a method to my madness. For instance, generic brands of sugar are often ground finer resulting in more sugar per cup which could make your cake fall. Generic butter often has more liquid fat which can make your pound cake very heavy.
• Testing Cake Doneness: Because the cake is dense, it can be tempting to pull out the cake too early. But you need to make sure that the center baked.
  • Tip for doneness, just use the old bamboo skewer, aka toothpick, trick. Insert into the center of the baked pound cake and when it comes out with a few moist crumbs, it’s done. Now, that doesn’t mean batter on the skewer. there should only be a FEW moist crumbs.