My Big Mama’s cream cheese pound cake recipe has been passed down through generations, so when I say it’s the best of the best, I mean it, boos. Her cream cheese pound cake is moist, buttery, and legit melts in your mouth. My love for pound cakes started with Big Mama, and sharing her recipes is my favorite way to keep that love going.
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Cream Cheese Pound Cake Ingredients
- Cream cheese: Use softened, full-fat brick-style cream cheese. The spreadable kind in the tub won’t work for this recipe. To soften it, unwrap and leave on a plate for 30 to 60 minutes. You can also cut it into small cubes to soften faster, or microwave it unwrapped at low power in 5-second bursts, checking between each.
- Wet ingredients: Unsalted butter, vegetable oil or shortening, eggs, and vanilla extract. I like European-style butter for that rich buttery flavor. Canola oil works too, and you can swap the vanilla extract for vanilla bean paste. Your butter should be soft enough to indent with a finger but still hold its shape. For fridge-cold eggs, put them in a bowl of warm tap water for 10 minutes, then dry and crack.
- Dry ingredients: Granulated sugar, cake flour, and kosher salt. Cake flour gives you a softer, finer crumb. Sift it first, then spoon it into your measuring cups and level it off. If you’re out, use my homemade cake flour. Leave out the added salt if using salted butter.
- Garnishes: Nine times out of ten, I serve mine with powdered sugar and fresh berries. But y’all can also add whipped cream, ice cream, caramel sauce, strawberry preserves, lemon curd… the list goes on and on!
How to Make Cream Cheese Pound Cake
These step-by-step photos show how to make Big Mama’s pound cake with cream cheese, but be sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredient list and detailed instructions. Skip to the → Easy Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe
1. Cream the butter, oil, and sugar
Beat the butter, oil or shortening, and cream cheese until smooth, then slowly add the sugar and beat until very pale and fluffy.
2. Mix in the eggs one at a time
Let each egg blend in before adding the next, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl so everything mixes evenly.
3. Add the flour and salt on low speed
Slowly mix in the cake flour in two additions, then add the salt, stopping as soon as the flour disappears.
4. Finish the cream cheese pound cake batter
Add the vanilla, scrape down the bowl, and mix just until combined.
5. Fill your prepared Bundt pan
Spoon the batter into a well-greased and floured Bundt pan and smooth the top.
6. Bake, cool, and garnish
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the thickest part comes out clean, then let the cake rest in the pan before turning it out to cool completely and adding your toppings.
PRO TIP: Even non-stick baking pans need a little extra love y’all. This homemade cake release is a Godsend, but you can totally use a spray or go old school with shortening, then flour in the pan like my Big Mama did.
Full Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe
Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or shortening
- 8 ounces cream cheese room temp, one brick
- 2 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 6 large eggs room temperature
- 3 cups sifted cake flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- powdered sugar for garnish
Instructions
- Start by preheating your oven to 325°F then liberally spray a 12-cup bundt pan with non-stick baking spray or grease with butter or shortening and then flour.
- In your mixer bowl, add butter, oil or shortening, and cream cheese and beat for 2 minutes on high speed. Slowly add in sugar beat on high speed for an additional seven minutes until very pale yellow and fluffy. There is no leavening in this cake because we add ample air to this cake by having a very long creaming period.
- Next, add eggs, one at a time, combining well after each addition and scraping down the sides as needed.
- Turn your mixer down to its lowest speed, and slowly add flour into batter in two increments then add salt. Be careful not to over beat.
- Lastly, add in vanilla extract, scrape down sides and mix until just combined and turn off mixer.
- Pour cake batter into prepared bundt pan, and bake for 1 hour and 15 -20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert cake on serving plate for at least an hour or until the cake is cool to the touch.
- Dust with powdered sugar and serve.
Video
Notes
How to Store
- Room Temp: Let the plain cake cool completely, then wrap tightly or keep in an airtight cake container for up to 4 days in a cool kitchen.
- Fridge: If your kitchen is hot or you added perishable toppings, refrigerate the cake tightly wrapped or in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Toppings can shorten that storage time. Bring slices to room temperature before serving.
- Freezer: Wrap the whole cake or individual slices tightly in plastic wrap, then foil, and place in a freezer bag. Freeze for up to 3 months for the best texture. Thaw wrapped overnight in the fridge, then bring to room temp. For a warm slice, microwave in short 10-second bursts just until warmed through.
Nutrition
Recipe Tips
- Once the flour is mixed in, stop the mixer. Use a spatula to fold in any flour left at the bottom of the bowl so you don’t overwork the batter.
- Let it take its time, boos. This pound cake is larger and heavier than a typical cake layer, so it needs longer in the oven to cook through. Don’t turn up the heat to hurry it along! You’ll brown the outside before the middle is ready.
- Check about halfway through baking. If the top is already getting dark, loosely cover it with foil, leaving room so it doesn’t touch the cake.
- If the cake sticks, don’t force it out. Gently loosen the edges and center tube with a thin silicone spatula, then try turning it out again. If it’s still stuck, set the pan upright on a hot, damp towel for a few minutes to help it release.
Recipe Help
No boos! You’ll taste soft, buttery vanilla cake with a little tang, something extra.
Yes! Divide the batter between two greased and parchment-lined 9×5-inch loaf pans, filling each no more than two-thirds full. Bake at 325°F and start checking earlier than you would for the Bundt.
Most old fashioned cream cheese pound cakes don’t have baking powder or baking soda, so you gotta rely on that creaming time period. Don’t skimp on mixing the butter and sugar! That’s how you work air into the batter.
It probably needed more time in the oven. Test the thickest part before taking it out, and keep baking if the toothpick has wet batter on it. Keep the oven door closed early on too so the cake sets.
Too much flour or overbaking can dry it out. For a moist cream cheese pound cake, measure the flour carefully and start checking at the shorter end of the baking range. If it’s already dry, a spoonful of strawberry jam or a dollop of whipped cream can help it out!
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I’m worried that there is way too much sugar in this recipe. Can I bring it down to one cup only, or even less? Thank you.
Unfortunately that is way too little sugar and it will mess up the carefully constructed ratios. The lowest I have brought it down is to 2 1/2 cups of sugar. You can maybe mix in some sugar replacement if you would like.
It’s a luxurious decadent pound cake for goodness sake, not a loaf of everyday bread!
This is definitely a 5 star recipe!Thanks for the great recipe & clear instructions!
Dear Jocelyn
I haven’t tried the cake yet (but I’m going to soon!). I wonder if you could possibly add into your recipes relevant weight (ideally by grams) of your ingredients. I live in Europe (Austria) and my ingredients differ to US ingredients. One way that I have found to be able to re-create US baked goods is to use weight, rather than volume measurements. For instance, sugar! If you gave me the weight and told me to beat until light and fluffy, the grain of sugar wouldn’t have so much effect. But the volume of the different grain of sugar will make a huge difference to the amount, if you see what I mean.
And I’m not asking for everything to be in weight. Just the main ingredients, like butter, flour, and sugar. I have the spoons and some Pyrex cups for liquids. And of course, there’s a different scale for eggs…added to which, I live in the mountains, so have to take altitude into account to boot!
Anyway, thanks for your site. Lots of wonderful ideas and I love the family connections that you include.
All the best
Oh absolutely! If you click Metric at the bottom of the ingredients, it will showcase the weight measurements. Let me know if you have any questions.
What makes this cake rise? There’s no baking powder
This cake doesn’t actually need the leavening. I ask for a longer creaming period to add more add to the cake in that way.
We debated using butter and flour in the pan but followed the recipe for just spray oil. Horrible. The cake stuck and broke in half. We’ve never had that happen in our Bundt pan.
Hi William, my recipe does not call for oil spray. I ask for those to use a non stick baking spray which comes with flour in it. Just spraying oil would never work for this. I’m sorry for your confusion. In the future, you can also make your own non stick formula https://grandbaby-cakes.com/homemade-cake-release/
However downgrading my review for something that has nothing to do with the recipe is disappointing.
I believe using Cake Flour..it has all the ingredients already in it.
My family loved this pound cake. The ingredients and instructions are simple and straight forward. I used a hand mixer the whole time and everything turned out great! It is delicately sweet. We paired it with a berry compote and fresh whipped cream. It doesn’t feel heavy or overly rich. Just perfect. It tastes delicious on its own, too!! Make it. You won’t regret it!!
Jocelyn, I just found the video for this recipe so I now have the answer to my whisk question. I can’t wait to try this cake! Thanks for posting.
I completely missed that I was supposed to use the whisk attachment. I used the paddle but got very worried during the 7 min creaming process. It got very liquidy and thin. Never saw that happen while creaming butter, cream cheese and oil. Very weird.
But then, I just took it out of the oven and it looks just fine. We’ll wee when I serve it tomorrow night.
Oh it should be fine. Let me know how it turns out.
My SNL said this recipe brings him back to grandma cakes and somehow this cake just does it for him. Delish . I’ve made him 4 of these and he is still coming back for more
This cake looks delicious. I can’t wait to make it. I see in the picture above that you are using the whisk attachment. Do you use that attachment for the entire mixing process, or do you switch over to the paddle attachment after you have beaten the butter, oil, and sugar together? Thanks
Ms Jocelyn, I used this recipe to bake a pound cake for Sunday dessert. It took my taste buds to one of my mama pound cakes when she baked when I was a child. Thanks so very much for this wonderful recipe. When I bake this cake again, I plan on using homemade butter from the Monastery. I love a good pound cake and found one. Thanks
Everything that I have made using your recipes has been great !!!