Perfect Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe
If you are looking for the perfect cream cheese pound cake recipe that turns out buttery, moist, and dense each and every time, add this year-round crowd-pleaser to your list! Using only 7 simple ingredients, this easy cream cheese pound cake will quickly become your favorite; serve plain with a sprinkle of powdered sugar or offer up homemade whipped cream and berries, or a drizzle of salted caramel or fudge sauce.
I consider a really good pound cake to be an essential for everyone’s recipe box or binder; if flavored the right way, it can stand on its own, but can also be dressed up with toppings or cut up to layer in a trifle. Whether you’re looking for a weeknight dessert or something everyone will love for a holiday or birthday party, this cream cheese pound cake will never let you down!
It’s incredibly simple to make and while a standard pound cake does not contain cream cheese, it really adds such a tremendous amount of moisture, tenderness, and flavor, making it, in my opinion, the best ever. This is by far my absolute favorite pound cake recipe!
What exactly is a pound cake?
The first traces of pound cake recipes are in northern Europe in the 1700s and it has grown across the globe since. A cake that required equal parts of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs was easy to remember in a time where many could not read a traditional cookbook. It required nothing more than a spoon and some elbow grease in the kitchen. Hundreds of years later, nearly every region is making its own version of this moist, dense cake.
In some French-speaking countries, rum is added as a Christmas Eve tradition. In both Mexico and Germany, dried fruit and liquor are added. I have some other variation ideas below, and they’re all phenomenal! Cream cheese pound cake is an American twist on the classic, and it is downright delicious.
Many modern recipes, including this one, adjust the original one pound-only proportions to accommodate some other ingredients (like cream cheese!).
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Ingredients for cream cheese pound cake
It’s super important for the texture of the cake that the butter, cream cheese, and eggs be at room temperature before you start mixing the cake better. This ensures that everything can emulsify and incorporate thoroughly, which gives us that moist, dense, and delicious cake!
- Butter – The building block for every buttery, delicious pound cake. Since so much of the flavor comes through, I always recommend using a high-quality butter here; I love Kerrygold.
- Cream Cheese – This helps create a stunningly moist pound cake. Use full-fat cream cheese here; it has less water content than low-fat alternatives, which ensures a cake that will never be dry.
- Eggs – They hold everything together! Make sure they are at room temperature, too.
- Cake Flour – Cake flour has less protein than all-purpose flour, which makes for a lighter crumb. I do not recommend substituting all-purpose flour, as the cake will be heavy and dense. If you can’t get your hands on cake flour, you can use my substitution trick here.
- Sugar – Regular, granulated sugar is what we’re using.
- Vanilla Extract & Salt – For incredible flavor!
How to make cream cheese pound cake
- Generously grease (I think shortening works best!) and flour a standard 12-cup Bundt pan. Be sure that the pan holds 10 to 12 cups of batter; I’ve linked to my favorite classic pan, but I also love this swirl one, too!
- Beat the butter and cream cheese together until they are completely combined and totally smooth. This will take a couple of minutes, just be sure the mixture is super smooth before proceeding.
- Beat in the sugar until the entire mixture is light and fluffy. You really want to aerate the mixture and ensure it’s light as a cloud before adding the eggs; this can take about 5 minutes or so.
- Add eggs one at a time, scraping the sides between each egg. Since they are room temperature, they should incorporate quickly, which helps us not to overmix the batter!
- Gradually add the cake flour on low speed until almost completely incorporated, then add the vanilla and salt. We mix only until everything has combined, no longer.
- Spoon into the prepared pan and gently spread into an even layer.
- Bake for 75 to 90 minutes at 325 degrees, or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool, then turn out. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, and turn it out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Variations and toppings
While this cream cheese pound cake absolutely stands on its own (and I LOVE it that way!), there are many ways you can change up the flavors and dress it up for serving to suit your tastes:
- Many traditions add rum to the batter – especially around Christmas!
- Bakers in Germany often add dried fruit and crushed walnuts to their more traditional pound cake.
- The Venezuelan ponqué is soaked in wine and topped with sweet icing.
- A simple glaze or royal icing goes beautifully on this pound cake and adding a lemon or orange extract to that will give it a completely different flavor! The icing from my Cranberry Pound Cake with Orange Glaze is awesome on this as well!
- Fresh or frozen berries can be added to the batter, and the whole thing is amazing topped with some homemade whipped cream.
- Dust the top with powdered sugar or drizzle with salted caramel sauce or hot fudge sauce.
Storing and freezing instructions
- Storage: The cake can be kept, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap or in an airtight container, at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- Freezing Instructions: Wrap the cake tightly in two layers of plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then bring to room temperature before slicing and serving.
More delicious pound cake recipes
- Chocolate Pound Cake
- Classic Pound Cake
- Cranberry Pound Cake with Orange Glaze
- Russian Pound Cake
- Gingerbread Pound Cake
- Cranberry-Pecan Pound Cake with Praline Frosting
I would absolutely love it if you made this cream cheese pound cake; if you do, please stop back and leave a rating and let me know how you liked it! ENJOY! 😍
Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 1½ cups (340.5 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 8 ounces (226.8 g) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar
- 6 eggs, at room temperature
- 3 cups (375 g) cake flour, sifted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a standard-size 12-cup Bundt pan.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until combined and soft, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar continue to beat on medium speed, scraping the bowl once or twice, until the mixture is very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each one is completely incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, reduce the speed to low, and gradually add the flour until it has all been combined. Add the vanilla extract and salt and mix on low speed until incorporated, about 1 minute.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and gently spread to the edges of the pan in an even layer.
- Bake for 1¼ to 1½ hours, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before serving. Leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap or placed in an airtight container and stored at room temperature for up to 4 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Equipment: 10 to 12 cup Bundt pan
- Cream Cheese: Use full-fat cream cheese for the richest, moistest pound cake.
- Cake Flour: Do not substitute all-purpose flour here. Cake flour is readily available in all supermarkets, but if you need to substitute, see how to do so here.
- Loaf Pan Option: To bake in a loaf pan, grease two 9x5-inch loaf pans, divide the batter between them, and bake at 325 degrees for about 60 minutes.
- Serving Suggestions: Plain / Sprinkled with powdered sugar / whipped cream and berries / salted caramel sauce / hot fudge sauce
- Storage: The cake can be kept, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap or in an airtight container, at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- Freezing Instructions: Wrap the cake tightly in two layers of plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then bring to room temperature before slicing and serving.
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
This was so easy and tasty! I made two loaves and froze one so we have more later!
It’s strawberry season here, so for a potluck, I cubed this pound cake and skewered the cubes with strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream. It was a hit!
I would love to make this recipe, but I would love to add rum as my neighbor growing up always did. I would need to know, do I leave the vanilla.out and use the rum. Or just add the rum in addition and how much. Thank you and this looks delicious.
This was so so delicious!!! Light crumb but has the dense-ness of a pound cake. Sweet, but pound cake is supposed to me. I knew this website would give me the pound cake I was looking for !
Delicious, awesome, perfect pound cake with cheese. I tried and my kids love this . And, mould you have use for this cake is really make your cake looks awesome.
Can I make this in a loaf pan since I don’t have a bundt pan and are there any adjustments need to be made for this?
I was a little nervous because I never made pound cake before. However, this recipe is so easy and it’s perfect! It came together easily in the oven with no issues at all. The dough even looked like buttercream frosting when pulled out of the pan which we loved (no cracks!). Cheesecake stuffed into every layer that comes to make this heavenly dessert both flaky on top but also creamy inside.
How much rum should I add? I love pound cake! Thanks for this recipe, it sounds delicious.
Hi Linda, I would do ¼ to ½ cup, depending on how strong you’d like it. It may need a little extra time in the oven with the extra liquid. Enjoy!
Followed the instructions to the T, but my cake was underbaked. I baked it for 1.5 hours. Not sure what I did wrong. Could overmixing flour cause this?
Hi Michelle:
I am emailing from Ontario Canada and love your recipes and have used many. I am looking at this pound cake recipe and you use a lot of ounces in your recipes. We don’t use ounces in Canada only cups could you tell me what 8 ounces of cream cheese converted into cups would be please.
Hi Carol, 8 ounces would be 1 cup of cream cheese.
Most measuring cups list ounces. If all else, there are these search things called ‘Internet’ and ‘Google’ that have conversions and translations…
Made this according to directions. Baked in a silicone Bundt cake pan for 90 minutes. Toothpick came out completely completely clean. Unfortunately that left the top section a bit over baked and dry and the bottom/inner hole area undercooked and I had to cut those parts away. The well-cooked middle sections were very good with perfect pound cake texture-albeit very dense with a very mild flavor. I will try again with different pans. Definitely don’t undercook this. If the bottom overcooks are the rest would be done well and you cook compensate the dry part with a little glaze or fruit. Too much fruit would overtake the delicate flavor though.
This. Is. Perfect! Came together easily, baked for exactly 1 1/4 hours and came out of the pan looking like a picture. Pound cake and cheesecake are my favorites. And this pound cake is beautiful.
Follow the directions carefully, use a kitchen scale when baking (I convert to grams if they’re not listed), use the correct size pan and you can’t fail.
We like to put canned pie filling or homemade fruit topping on it. I really loved this recipe. Perfect pound cake. Supremely delicious!! *****
This is so delicious. I tried and my family and I loved it. I never knew that you could add cream cheese to Pound Cake. And you were right, it adds a tremendous amount of moisture, tenderness, and flavor to the cake. And thanks for the brief history lesson.
I have heard of starting this in a cold oven. Are you familiar with that technique?
Also, what happened to the different topics for reviews? I believe they were, questions, comments, and reviews…or something like that. I really liked that set-up.
I made this cream cheese poundcake and it came out delicious. I made sure I used a large bundt pan….not the 9 ” which most people have. I am sure mine is 12″…its quite large. I love this poundcake and sometime substitute sour cream. Thank you for recipe.
Can anyone speak to how tangy the cream cheese makes this cake? I’m worried about too much cream cheese flavor coming through
Hi Diane, I personally don’t think there’s much tang at all.
I made this pound cake for a birthday at work. It turned out really well. This will definitely be my go-to for pound cake recipes. On the flop out of the pan, I was a little nervous, but it is pretty amazing.
Beautiful pound cake: so forgiving of short cuts, mistakes & modifications..cut sugar by a third, bunked in everything in the mixer except the flour, which was folded in last by hand, wrong cake tin which caused the batter to overflow, miscalculated the cooking time: stabbed the cake with a knife at 45 minutes..And it still turned out yummy 😋
I made this poundcake this morning and it fell I’ve. Tried to make the cream cheese poundcake before and it did the same thing
We love your Strawberry Swirl Bundt Cake.
Is this the cake alone from that one?
Thanks.
Yes! :)
Fid it and it was a disaster, don’t know why I followed all the directions its to sweet and texture hard. What did I do wrong?
for the lemon cream cheese pound cake,can one use regular flour?
Hi Annabelle, I do recommend cake flour for the best consistency, however it won’t be ruined if you use all-purpose flour.
I am in the process of baking this cake right now. I wish someone had posted about how much it makes. Since it doesn’t have baking powder or soda, I assumed it wouldn’t rise, so I filled the bundt pan. I just checked the oven and it is spilling over.
I put a sheet pan under it so the batter will not fall all over the oven. Fingers crossed it will still bake okay.
So sad!!! I was looking so forward to baking this cake for my hub. He is very sick but he really enjoys my cooking. I love to bake. I try a new recipe almost every week. I follow the recipe step by step and the cake raised so much that almost set the oven on fire. It dripped all over and it made a such mess… What did I do wrong????i I will appreciate any advice to avoid this disaster next time.
Hi Sandy, Did you use a large enough Bundt pan? That’s the only thing I can think of!