Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This is my very favorite pound cake recipe, and I served it a lot at our B&B. Your Dad, on the other hand, loves Mama's coffee cake. So, of course, he's not shy whatsoever in expressing his disappointment when he realizes the treat under the cake dome is not his beloved Gugelhupf -- the coveted German coffee cake recipe that took me nearly eight years to get from Mama. She was always kind of cute this way -- the fact that it was she that ran across a recipe first in a magazine, newspaper, or cookbook and this recipe ended up in the family collection of recipes, then nobody (and I mean nobody) got their hands on this recipe unless maybe one or two of her sisters. But I finally wore her down in the end on Gugelhupf. I found this recipe in the 1995 Southern Living Annual Cookbook (page 304), and have absolutely no qualms about sharing it with anyone. It's too good to keep to myself! :)

A Southern Living "Best" Pound Cake

Ingredients: 
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed at medium speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes or until mixture is creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating 5 to 7 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears. Add vanilla, mixing well.

Combine flour and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended after each addition. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan.

Fill a 2-cup ovenproof measuring cup with water and place in oven with tube pan. (I just use one of my glass liquid measuring cups) -- the purpose of this is to keep moisture in the oven while baking this cake, which prevents the cake from cracking.

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack at least 40 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack before storing cake in an airtight Tupperware container or under a glass cake dome. Make sure the pan is cool before attempting to remove cake -- too many times I ended up with bits of the cake still inside the pan because I was impatient and didn't wait for it to cool properly. I take a thin knife and loosen the cake from the pan -- around the edges as well as the center where the tube is located. Invert the tube pan onto a cake platter and the cake should come out easily.
If you want a smooth texture never fail pound cake -- this cake is perfect. It won the highest mark a recipe can receive in the Southern Living Test Kitchens. Everyone I served this cake raves about the  taste and texture -- it complements any type of meal you might be serving. Great to serve for a breakfast buffet, great for dessert after a light lunch, and great to serve after a huge dinner. It's just one great cake!