4.96 from 43 votes

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

By Sam MerrittPublished Feb 15, 2024

116 Comments

Servings: 16 servings

1 hr 50 mins

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My cream cheese pound cake is perfectly moist, dense and never dry. We’ll bake it low and slow for moist, tender results. One of my favorites! Recipe includes a how-to video!

Slice of cream cheese pound cake with the remaining cake behind it.

My New Favorite Pound Cake

I’ve shared quite a few pound cakes here on the blog, but today’s cream cheese pound cake might just be my favorite. While it looks modest, it’s a nice heavy (but not too heavy!) cake that is anything but plain. The cream cheese adds great depth of flavor and makes the cake so tender.

The texture is dense (as pound cake should be) and melts in your mouth. It’s simple, yet so stunning!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Perfectly moist and tender. Follow my tips for avoiding a dry cake, and yours will come out just like the pictures!
Takes just 15 minutes to prepare before going in the oven. It’s less complicated than my sour cream pound cake.
Low and slow baking allows the center of the cake to finish cooking without over-baking the outside (a common issue with pound cakes!).
No decorating needed, thanks to the cream cheese this cake has a lovely flavor that stands alone, but if you want to add a little something extra it pairs nicely with fresh berries and whipped cream.

Ingredients

One of the best things about pound cake recipes is that they use only basic ingredients, and this recipe is no exception. We’ll need only eight ingredients today, read on for more information on the specifics and why I chose each one.

All-purpose flour. I tried this recipe with cake flour (instead of all-purpose) and did not prefer the results that way; the crumb was too fine and felt too dry, almost cottony in the mouth (despite the fact that it was not actually dry or over-cooked). Stick with all-purpose!
Baking soda. I don’t normally include leavening agents in my pound cake, but a small pinch of baking soda helped the crumb in this recipe. The cake is still dense, but the baking soda improves the texture.
Cream cheese. Make sure you use full-fat, brick-style cream cheese. This is very important! Any other variety (like the spreadable kind sold in tubs) will not work here, just like when making cheesecake or cream cheese frosting.
Sugar. I know three cups seems like a lot, and it is–this is a big cake! It’s important that you use this quantity not only for sweetness but also moisture. If you cut the sugar in the recipe, your cake could be dry.
Eggs. These should be at room temperature. If yours aren’t, hop over to my post on how to quickly bring eggs to room temperature. This will help the eggs mix into the batter much easier and will yield the silky smooth, velvety batter we are looking for here. My classic pound cake recipe requires cracking into a dozen eggs, when I developed this recipe I tried to cut down on the number needed, so while 6 may seem like a lot, it’s really not so bad in comparison 😉

SAM’S TIP: Grease and flour your pan REALLY well! I have a detailed tutorial of how I do this in my video below. I find it works best to use shortening for the grease part (even though I’m slowly removing shortening from my recipes and from my kitchen) as it does seem to provide better protection against sticking, but you could use butter instead.

Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Four photos showing cake batter being mixed together and spread into a tube pan.

Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth, then scrape the bowl and add the sugar. Beat again until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, whipping each into the batter until completely combined. Beat the batter for 30 seconds or so on medium high after each addition. This process incorporates air into the batter and helps give the cake lift.
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then stir them into the wet ingredients. Once everything is incorporated, beat the batter on medium speed for another minute.
Spread the batter into a greased and floured pan. Note that while the batter is quite thick, it should be super smooth and velvety at this point. There shouldn’t be any lumps!

Two photos showing a pound cake before and after being removed from a tube pan.

Bake until the cake is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs.
Let the cake cool for 10-15 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

SAM’S TIP: A toothpick isn’t long enough to reach the center of a cake this big, so use a wooden skewer to test for doneness instead.

Whole pound cake that's been baked in a tube pan on a cooling rack with flowers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my pound cake dry?

This cake is carefully designed to be moist and tender, so yours shouldn’t be dry at all! Reducing the sugar, over-baking the cake, over-measuring the flour, and/or cooking in an oven that runs hotter than it says (I always use oven thermometers to avoid this!) can all dry out your pound cake (or ANY cake!).

Can I use self rising flour?

No! Do not use self rising flour here, or you will have a mess all over your oven. The leavening agents in the flour will cause your cake to rise and spill out of your pan. Please use all-purpose flour!

Does cream cheese pound cake need to be refrigerated?

This cake should be stored at room temperature. Just make sure to keep it in an airtight container or wrap it really well in plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.

Slice of pound cake on a plate with the remaining cake in the background.

What to serve with cream cheese pound cake

We love this recipe plain, it has a beautiful light sweetness to it (the crackly meringue top that becomes the bottom is my favorite part) but if you want to take things to the next level, here are a few great options:

Slice and serve topped with macerated strawberries and homemade whipped cream (or chocolate whipped cream).
Serve slices topped with strawberry sauce, lemon curd, raspberry sauce, or blueberry sauce.
Top the entire cake with a dusting of powdered sugar, a drizzle of vanilla glaze, or a blanket of decadent chocolate ganache.

Make sure to watch the video below for a special surprise at the end 💕

Enjoy!

Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜

4.96 from 43 votes

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

My cream cheese pound cake is perfectly dense and never dry. We'll bake it low and slow for moist, tender results. One of my favorites!

Recipe includes a how-to video!

Prep: 15

Cook: 1 35

Total: 1 50

Servings: servings

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Equipment

Ingredients

▢ 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, softened
▢ 8 oz (226 g) cream cheese, softened
▢ 3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar
▢ 6 large eggs, lightly beaten
▢ 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
▢ 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
▢ ¼ teaspoon baking soda
▢ 1 teaspoon table salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300F (150C) and thoroughly grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan. Tap out excess flour and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and cream cheese and use an electric mixer (or use a stand mixer with paddle attachment) to beat on high speed until smooth and creamy.
1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 8 oz (226 g) cream cheese
Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Add sugar and mix again, increasing speed to high and beating until light and fluffy.
3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar
With the mixer on high speed, add one egg. Stir until completely combined, then beat another 30 seconds on medium-high speed. Repeat this process with each egg.
6 large eggs
Add vanilla extract and stir to combine.
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
In a separate, medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and table salt. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet, stirring until completely combined. Once combined, beat on medium speed for another minute. Batter should be smooth, silky, and light.
3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon table salt
Pour evenly into prepared pan and bake in 300F (150C) oven for 1 hour 35 minutes – 1 hour 40 minutes. When finished, the cake will be golden brown and a wooden skewer (not toothpick – it’s too short) inserted into the center should come out clean or with moist crumbs.
Allow cake to cool in pan for 10-15 minutes before carefully inverting onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Allow to cool before serving. This pound cake is excellent plain but also may be dressed up with a dusting of powdered sugar, a topping of vanilla glaze or chocolate ganache, or a side of whipped cream and fresh berries.

Notes

Cake flour

I much prefer the texture of this pound cake made with all-purpose rather than cake flour, but if you must substitute cake flour you can use 3 1/3 cups (375 grams)

Storing

Wrap tightly and store at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Freezing

Cream cheese pound cake may also be tightly wrapped (in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil for good measure) and frozen for several months. You may slice the pound cake and freeze individual slices or freeze whole. To thaw, I recommend slowly thawing (wrapped) overnight in the refrigerator, then bringing to room temperature and enjoying.