Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I was in Mt. Pleasant this past weekend visiting my mom and picking up some fabric that I needed to complete my "Daydreamer" quilt. While there I got into a cooking mood as sometimes happens. To tell you the truth, about anything to get my mom to eat more than a thimble full of food is worth getting me in the cooking mood. I had just received my latedt issue of Southern Living magazine with this glorious pound cake on the cover. I thought that I would share it with you and give you a pointer that the folks at the magazine haven't caught onto just yet. The cake in the magazine is called Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake but because I am detouring from their recipe a bit I have dropped the Strawberry Swirl part but will give you a flavorful alternative. OK.

Strawberry slim as I call it is that stuff that you purchase in the grocery store to slice your strawberries into and then put into a pastry shell for fresh strawberry pie or to doll-up one of those short cake rounds. What I am going to give you here is in this blog from a previous entry as "Fresh Strawberry Pie".
1 C. sugar
2 Tbsp. corn starch
1 1/4 C. cold water
1 Tbsp. white corn syrup (in a pinch this weekend I used honey)
1 reg. package of Strawberry flavored Jello
Stirring constantly over medium high heat, bring to a boil and continue cooking and stirring for 1 minute. When cool this will replace that jar of "strawberry slime" that they sell in the grocery store and it tastes like strawberries.

Now for the cake part:
Preheat the oven to 350F
Grease a 14 cup tub pan or use the smaller 12 cup and use a small loaf pan for the balance of the batter.

1 1/2 C. butter softened
3 C. sugar
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
6 lrg. eggs
3 C. all purpose flour
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (I will tell you here that when I made this I didn't have the almond extract on hand at Mom's and used all real vanilla extract and it was great)
2/3 C. strawberry glaze (this would be what we made above, I would tell you that you want this at room temp.. If it too cold it won't swirl and too warm it runs)

Beat the butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty (Kitchen Aid stand works well) mixer. until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese, beating until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.
Gradually add flour to the butter mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition, stopping to sxrape the bowl as needed. Stir in the flavoring.
Pour 1/3 of the mixture into the prepared pan. Dollop in a few teaspoons of the strawberry glaze over the batter and swirl in with a knife blade or skewer. Repeat twice more. (If you are using the smaller pan, stop filling it about 1/2 inch from the top. While there is no levening in this it does rise a bit and you don't want t mess. If you are using the smaller pan and have a small loaf pan in the oven with the tube pan, you will need to watch it for doneness. I found that the baking time on the smaller tube pan is just short of the shortest baking time below.)
Bake at 350F for 1 hour or 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a spagetti strand inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes. At that point remove cake from the pan on to the wire rack and allow it to completely cool, about 1 hour.
Southern Living says this recipe is from Nancy H. Test from West Chester, Ohio.

I can tell you that my brother, his wife, my husband and my mom all raved. The cake has a wonderful texture as well as a very richness associated with pound cake. I sliced fresh strawberries into the rest of the glaze and served it on the side with the cake. What a pretty picture and it remained everyone of spring being here one of these days.