Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Introducing the 'it' cake of the pound cake world.
Peeps of the blog world, if you're reading this, first, thanks for scootin' by my humble blog, and second, you are about to witness me blog about one of my greatest finds since I started baking.
Presenting -----> (insert drum roll)"Cream Cheese Pound Cake!!" (Take a bow, cake, take a bow)

This cake is the Queen. It is tender, moist, and I could taste the subtle and beautiful flavour of cream cheese quietly coming through. How lucky am I that I found my favourite pound cake recipe in the second recipe I tried? I am Luck-eeeee.

Thank you thank you thank you Miss Smitten Kitchen for introducing this cake to me. Here's a 'fried blue' quote: "The key to successful baking is not in the baking itself, but knowing the right recipes and having a solid go-to baker." haha~ (May not be entirely true for all, but is currently true for me as a novice baker....I wonder when I stop being a novice baker...hmmm...) Smitten Kitchen is such a baker/blog/recipe for me. Even though she has no idea of my existence - I will thank her every time I bake this glorious cake. *Sigh*

LOOK at that texture!!
Look at that golden crispy top!!
*Sigh*

I was baking these for a fondu party my friend was having
so I chopped them up into fondu-able sizes.
Here they are ready to be transported to the party and fondued.

Can you tell? They are just dying to be eaten.

If you go to the Smitten Kitchen site, she has a strawberry coulis recipe to go with it. I'm sure it will be amazing. As for the fondu - this was PERFECT for fondu-ing. So, I imagine these will go great with chocolate ganache.

I halved the recipe but I'm going to write out the original.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake
From Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Staff Meals from Chanterelle

• 1 1/2 C unsalted butter at room temp (I used 'less salt softened butter' because they were easier to cream - can't seem to find softened unsalted butter...do they not exist? I reduced the amount of salt because I used this butter)
• 8 oz Philadelphia brand cream cheese at room temp
• 3 C sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract plus 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I just used all vanilla which is what the original original recipe had according to Smitten Kitchen.)
• 3 C all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven 325 degrees F. Lightly butter a tube pan or a bundt cake pan. Sift flour and set aside. (I used a loaf pan)
2. Place the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl and beat 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.
3. 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.
4. Add the vanilla, almond, then the flour and salt all at once. Beat until just incorporated.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and even out the top with a spatula or by shaking the pan. bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. 1 1/4 hours.
6. Place the pan on a cake rack and cool for 20 minutes then remove the cake from the pan and let it cool.

*Note about the raw dough: try it.