Baking with Martha - Cream Cheese Pound Cake

A couple of weeks ago we happened to stop on a PBS channel that featured the Martha Bakes TV show.  We only meant to stop for a minute, but we ended up watching for quite a while.  She made several good looking desserts, but this is the one that my husband really liked.  We are both fans of pound cake.  Typically I make a Tastefully Simple Absolutely Almond pound cake, but I decided to give this “from scratch” recipe a shot.  We loved it!  It wasn’t too sweet and baked in just about an hour.  I also halved the recipe, since the original recipe makes two whole loaves and that would have been way too much.

Cream-Cheese Pound Cake

Ingredients

1 1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature

   1/2 bar (4 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature

   1 1/2 cups sugar

   3 large eggs

   1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

   1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

   1 teaspoons salt

   Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar; beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. With mixer on low, add flour and salt in two additions, beating until just combined.

Generously coat one 8 1/2-by-4 1/2- by-2 1/2-inch loaf pans (1 1/2 quarts) with cooking spray; immediately pour in batter (pan will seem full). Tap pan on work surface to eliminate any large air bubbles.

Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean, 60 to 75 minutes (if the tops begin to brown too quickly, tent with aluminum foil).

Cool 10 minutes in the pan. Turn out the cake; cool completely, with top sides up, on a wire rack.

Original recipe found here.