Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Very Berry Coulis

I wish I could find a way to mark some of my recipes with a flashing banner: MAKE THIS!! NO, REALLY, I MEAN IT! DON’T PUT IT OFF! Actually, since this is my blog, I guess I could make that a new category if I wanted to! When confronted with a cake this good, it becomes really tempting to make some kind of an all-star recipe list. But the thing is, I really want you to make all of the recipes on Bridezilla Bakes, because they are all amazing. If they weren’t that good, I wouldn’t post them — I do make many things that never make it onto the blog. There are no duds here.

That being said… this cake is special. The dense-but-soft texture is balanced by the light, sweet tanginess of lemon. The crust — is it the cream cheese that makes it brown so perfectly? — is so distinct that it seems like an entirely different cake. The whole effect is just out of this world.

I think I am partly so in love with this cake because it’s the perfect cake to welcome spring. The original recipe didn’t call for any lemons, but when I made this cake without the lemon zest, it was too sweet (I know, I made fun of Sean in my last post because he called my desserts too sweet… but when the only flavor you take away from a cake is sweet… then the cake is too sweet!). I fell in love with the texture and consistency of the cake, but in a cake that has as much sugar as flour (eek!), you need a little more flavor and tang.

Enter lemon… a winter fruit with a spring taste! There is a TON of lemon flavor here, thanks to two whole lemons, zested. AND… well, there’s this amazing fruit sauce that goes with it. I’m sorry to say, however, that I’m going to save that for Wednesday’s post, because I have decided that it deserves its own spring-like ode!

Actually, leaving the coulis out of this post leaves me room to share a totally repulsive story regarding the first time I made this cake. Aren’t you glad you stuck around long enough to make it to this part? So, the first time I made this was over a year ago, when Sean and I were visiting my parents’ house for Memorial Day (I think… ?). The original recipe was for a bundt-sized cake (incidentally, feel free to double this cake recipe to make the full bundt, if you’re feeding a crowd. You won’t be sorry you did!). I made the entire recipe, and a strawberry sauce to go with it… the results were outstanding, if a little sweet.

The thing is, I made a bundt cake for six people, and we just couldn’t eat the whole thing. My cake ended up sitting out on my parents’ island countertop for a while after our guests left. Later that evening, my dad and I had cake on the brain, and went into the kitchen to grab one more slice. I distinctly remember not being able to focus on the TV program we were watching… my heart and mind had been captured by the cake on the counter.

Finally succumbing to temptation, we went into the kitchen, uncovered the cake, poised the knife over it and got ready for heaven… only to find that the cake had fallen prey to ANTS! Ugh!!! How utterly, disgustingly unappetizing. The entire cake went into the trash.

I guess there are many lessons from this post: 1) stay tuned for the very berry coulis… 2) if you have an ant problem, try not to leave baked out on your counter… but if you take anything away from this post, let it be: MAKE THIS LEMON CAKE! NO, REALLY, DO IT, DON’T PUT IT OFF!

Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Adapted from smitten kitchen

• ¾ cups (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 small (4-oz.) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter or spray a loaf pan (mine is 8 ½ by 4 ¼ by 2 ½ or something like that).

Cream butter and cream cheese together in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, on medium speed, until smooth.

Meanwhile, rub the lemon zest into the sugar until all the sugar is moistened and aromatic. At this point, it should smell like lemon heaven J

Add the sugar to the butter/cream cheese. Increase the mixer speed to high, and beat until light and fluffy, at least five minutes (I went 6 or 7 minutes – the batter looks like frosting at this point). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the vanilla, then the flour and salt all at once. Beat just until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, 65-70 minutes.

Place the pan on a metal rack and cool for 20 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely.

Tagged as: cake, cream cheese, fruit, lemon