May 14, 2012

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Name: Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 70 min
Total time: 85 min
Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups cake flour; 3 cups sugar (6 eggs); 1 -8 oz cream cheese; 2 1/2 sticks butter; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

The pound cake is a British Creation dating back to the 17th Century.

The name (Pound Cake) comes from the fact that the original pound cakes contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. No leaveners were used other than the air whipped into the batter. In the days when many people couldn’t read, this simple convention made it simple to remember recipes.

A cake made of 1 pound of each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour would have been very large and would have been able to serve multiple families. As years went by, the portions of the ingredients used were adjusted to make a smaller, lighter cake. However, the name of the cake stuck.

By the mid 1800’s pound cake recipes began to deviate slightly from the original formula to make a lighter cake. The Pound Cake has traditionally been a popular dessert in the southern states. The first known cookbook written by an African-American, Abby Fisher, called What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking. Mrs. Fisher, born a slave, somehow found her way to San Francisco soon after the Civil War and created a life and business there manufacturing and selling “pickles, preserves, brandies, fruits, etc. Mrs. Fisher could not read or write. It is said that her friends wrote down her recipes and helped her publish her cookbook. Her cookbook includes two Pound Cake recipes. Artificial leaveners (baking powder/soda) were added. Today, pound cakes use different proportions of the same ingredients as the original formula to produce a lighter cake. Info from the webpage whats cooking in america.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar, 6 eggs
1 -8oz cream cheese
2 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Instructions

1. Melt butter and cream cheese in microwave for 50 sec. Mix sugar, butter and cream cheese together, mix well. Add 1 egg then beat well. Alternate with flour and beat well again. You end with an egg. Add the flavorings and beat well. Pour in greased bundt cake pan. Bake at 350F preheated oven for 70 minutes. On 2nd top shelf.

*Arrisje’s Recipe Card. Right Click on the picture below then save to your hard drive and print as a 4×6 picture.*