Cream Cheese Pound Cake

...or Melt-In-Your-Mouth Pound Cake ...or White Velvet Pound Cake ...or The Best D@#% Pound Cake I've Ever Eaten! Any of these could be proper titles for this blog post. Seriously, this is THE pound cake to end all pound cakes. It's moist, rich, dense, flavorful, silky, delicious! The texture alone is what sold me on this pound cake recipe. It has no chemical leaveners, so it relies on whipping the batter up into a fluffy, sweet cloud in order for it to get a nice lift in the oven. And since cake flour is used instead of all purpose flour, each bite feels like silk on your tongue. It's pretty darn incredible! Tomorrow I'm going to get some juicy strawberries and make strawberry shortcake with it. Heck, I might even get a little crazy and use it to make a nutella-banana panini à la Amanda of Is This Thing On? Either way, I'm going to be in heaven for the next couple of days. And I can say that with confidence because I made TWO of these suckers!!

Whipping the fats, sugar, and eggs thoroughly will give you a light and airy finished batter.

A scale comes in handy for making sure you fill both pans equally.
Look at that crumb... yummy!

I originally came across this recipe on AllRecipes.com, but after further investigation, I noticed it's nearly identical to Smitten Kitchen's recipe. The following is an adaptation of ingredients and methods from both recipes, as well as some improvisation.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Makes 1 large bundt, 1 10-inch tube cake, or 2 standard loaves

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly butter a 10-inch tube pan, then line the bottom with parchment paper. Alternately, you can use 2 loaf pans. (I used 2 9x5" loaf pans and my cakes were somewhat short. I recommend using 2 8x4" pans.)
2. Place the butter, cream cheese, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl. With the mixer on low speed, add half of the flour mixture. Gradually increase speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds. Beat in the extracts. Add the remaining flour and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape the bowl thoroughly.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and shake lightly to even out the top. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, 1 hour and 15 minutes.
5. Place the pan(s) on a cake rack and cool for 10 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely. Serve at room temperature.