Rich and decadent, my Cream Cheese Pound Cake recipe is packed with delicious sour cream and cream cheese to create a perfectly dense, moist crumb. Enjoy a slice of pound cake on its own or pair it with seasonal fresh fruit!
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Pin RecipePound cake proves that a dessert doesn’t need to be over-the-top to be delicious. Whether it’s Chocolate Pound Cake, Lemon Pound Cake, Pound Cake from Cake Mix, or Pound Cake with Fruit and Whipped Cream, a good pound cake is a thing of beauty. And so is this cream cheese pound cake!
A velvety crumb is a must, and it can never be dry! My recipe for cream cheese pound cake ticks all the boxes and it tastes so good, too. The best part? All you need to make this recipe are basic pantry and fridge staples, and it comes together so quickly and without any fuss.
Easy Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe
I love to serve pound cake at the end of a simple lunch, or just with a cup of afternoon tea. It’s great plain or you can dress it up with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream for a fancier presentation. I love how versatile pound cake isโyou can throw in some lemon or orange zest for more flavor or use a vanilla pod to infuse the cake with flecks of vanilla bean.
This recipe relies on both cream cheese and sour cream to make it a super rich, super smooth, super lovely pound cake. I bake the batter in a bundt pan because I like how pretty it turns out, but you could also bake it in a loaf pan. It’s hard to go wrong with this one.
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Ingredients for Cream Cheese Pound Cake
See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
- Butter – You can use salted or unsalted butter.
- Cream cheese
- Sugar
- Sour cream – Use full-fat sour cream.
- Vanilla extract – Pure vanilla extract will give the cake the best flavor.
- Eggs
- Flour
- Cornstarch – Helps with binding and lightness in the cake.
- Baking powder
- Salt
Variations
- Add citrus zest – Add lemon, lime, or orange zest to the batter for a hit of citrusy flavor.
- Throw in some chocolate chips – Make chocolate chip pound cake! Stir in a cup of mini chocolate chips just before putting the batter in the pan.
- Use brown sugar – For a slightly different flavor note, swap half of the sugar for light or dark brown sugar.
Quick Tip
Bring the cream cheese to room temperature before incorporating it into the batter. This will help keep any lumps from forming in the batter.
How to Make Cream Cheese Pound Cake
- Prepare the pan: Preheat your oven to 325โ and grease and flour a 9โ bundt pan. Set the pan aside for now.
- Cream the butter: Beat the butter, cream cheese, and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. You can use an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl several times so there are no clumps of butter or cream cheese.
- Add the sour cream: Add the sour cream and vanilla to the bowl and mix again.
- Beat in the eggs: Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition. Make sure you are still scraping down the sides of the bowl so your batter will be nice and smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients: Add the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt to the batter and mix well.
- Place the batter in the pan: Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan, making it evenly distributed throughout.
- Remove any air bubbles: Bang the pan on the counter twice to help pop any air bubbles in the batter. You want the cake to be dense with no air pockets!
- Bake the cake: Place the cake in the oven and bake for about 80 minutes. Check the cake after about 40 minutes to see if it is getting too brown. If it starts to look dark, loosely cover the pan with a piece of aluminum foil to prevent the direct heat from the oven from making it too brown.
- Cool the cake: Let the cake cool in the pan for about 1 hour, then flip the cake onto a metal cooling rack or serving platter. Slice and enjoy!
Quick Tip
Don’t worry if the cake takes quite a while to bake. This is a very heavy and dense cake and it can take up to 90 minutes for the center of the cake to firm completely. Check often after you’ve baked it for 80 minutes and pull it out of the oven when a tester comes out clean.
How to Store
Store the cake, tightly wrapped, in the fridge for up to 5 days. Eat the cake cold straight from the fridge, or bring it to room temperature before serving.
You can also freeze this pound cake! Wrap leftover cake tightly in plastic wrap, then wrap in foil and place in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost it in the fridge before serving.
Serving Suggestions
Pound cake is delicious on its own or you could try it with these suggestions:
- With fresh fruit – Any kind of fresh fruit would be so good with slices of pound cake! I really love it with sliced strawberries or you could do a mix of blueberries and raspberries.
- Drizzle with chocolate sauce – Drizzle slices of cake with chocolate sauce!
- Top with whipped cream – Piles of fluffy whipped cream will take this pound cake over the top! See my Pound Cake with Fruit and Whipped Cream recipe for more inspiration.
FAQs
Yes – and we’ll try to avoid doing so! Overbeating the eggs may cause the batter to overflow the sides of the pan when baked or create a fragile crust that crumbles and separates from the cake as it cools.
Absolutely. It’s important to let the cake cool in the pan before you remove it so that you don’t end up with a broken cake. Try to plan ahead so you can cool the cake in the pan for about 1 hour before you turn it out.
A bundt pan is a great choice! You could also use a standard loaf pan to bake your pound cake.
More Cake Recipes
Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ยฝ cups butter, softened
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 2 ยฝ cups sugar
- ยฝ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 6 large eggs
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ยพ teaspoon baking powder
- ยผ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325โ and grease and flour a 9โ bundt pan.ย Set the pan aside for now.
- Beat the butter, cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. You can use an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl several times so there are no clumps of butter or cream cheese.
- Add the sour cream and vanilla to the bowl and mix again.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition. Make sure you are still scraping down the sides of the bowl so your batter will be nice and smooth.
- Add the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt and mix well.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan, making it even throughout the pan.
- Bang the pan on the counter twice to help pop any air bubbles in the batter. You want the cake to be dense with no air pockets!
- Bake the cake for about 80 minutes. Check the cake after about 40 minutes to see if it is getting too brown. If it starts to look dark, loosely cover the pan with a piece of aluminum foil to prevent the direct heat from the oven from making it too brown.ย When the cake is fully cooked, a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake will come out cleanly.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for about 1 hour then flip the cake onto a metal cooling rack or serving platter. Slice and enjoy!
Notes
- This is a dense, heavy cake so it takes a while to cook in the oven. Do not be surprised if it can take up to 90 minutes for the center of the cake to be completely bakes.
- Use two loaf pans instead of a bundt pan to make perfect pound cake loaves.
Just took out of the oven. Made it a few times before. Everyone loved it.
I’ve been baking for many years! This cake sounded amazing, yet didn’t turn out at all!! I put the cake tester in and it came out clean at several different places. Once it cooled for an hour and I turned it out it looked terrible. The top fell down on itself and I had a deep gouge around the middle. When I cut the cake it was not done! It had 1/2 inch around the top that looked baked and that was it. So disappointed!
We’re sorry to hear this, Maggie! By chance did you use cold ingredients? We’ve found this can cause issues.
What is the purpose of the cornstarch?
What kind of flour, self rising or plain?
Plain flour works great.
Do we use ALL PURPOSE FLOUR, or CAKE FLOUR? I want to make this for the weekend, please hurry. Thank you .
I have used regular flour and it works great.
What type flour?
Regular flour works great!
Sounds delicious, I suddenly will make this one, this week,Thanks for the recipe!
This cake sounds good. I havenโt tried because Iโm not sure what the cornstarch is for in the cake. To firm it? Not sure how it may turn out without the c-starch.
Hello! Looks amazing! How many eggs are you using? ( I don’t see the number of eggs in the recipe, but maybe I don’t have the right glasses on ๐)
Yes, it’s 6 eggs.
I see you added them to the ingredient list thanks
What happen with the sugar?