We recently got back from a week’s vacation to Illinois to visit wonderful family there. While we were gone I was worried my garden wouldn’t survive the dry hot weather that Oregon gets this time of year. To my surprise my garden did well except for some strawberry plants. Nonetheless I was able to harvest some ripe strawberries when we got home, and I set about figuring out how to use them.

Since I had cream cheese in the refrigerator, I decided to use it up and try to make a cream cheese pound cake. I searched my pile of cookbooks and the internet for the best cream cheese pound cake. One that resonated with me was from the Allrecipes website. I made and tweaked it several times to figure out how to best proportion the strawberries and cream cheese.

My family and I were very happy with the result. A key part is the strawberry drizzle over the cake. It’s simple to make but it takes the cake to a different level. This cake is super moist, dense, sweet and has just the right amount of tang from the lemon and strawberry.

If you end up with more pound cake than you can eat at one time, cooled pound cake can be wrapped in parchment paper or plastic and stored at room temperature. It will keep up to three days if covered properly at room temperature. You can also keep this in the freezer to use later. When you need it, just thaw it for a few hours at room temperature.

If you try this cake recipe please leave a comment and let me know how you liked it!

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 8 oz. package regular cream cheese, soften
• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, soften
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 6 large eggs, room temperature
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp. lemon zest
• 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup fresh strawberries, diced

Strawberry glaze

• 1/4 cup trimmed strawberries
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Use a nonstick butter spray to grease, then flour a 10-inch bunt pan and set aside.

Cream butter, salt, and cream cheese in a large mixing bowl with a hand held or stand mixer until smooth. Add sugar and beat until fluffy.

Add eggs and beat well. Then add vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

Add flour and mix everything well. Next, gently fold in the diced strawberries.

Pour into the prepared bunt pan. Bake in a preheated oven (325 degrees) for an hour and twenty five minutes. Rotate the pan couple of times in between baking. Check for doneness after an hour. The cake is done once a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Afterwards, turn the cake out onto a plate or cake stand to cool completely.

Strawberry glaze

Place strawberries in a small blender and blend until smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the strawberry puree and confectioners’ sugar until smooth.

Pour the glaze over the pound cake, letting it drip down the sides. Let the glaze set, for 30-45 minutes before eating.

Serves 10-12

Did you make this dish? I’d love to know how it turns out! Feel free to like this post and comment or use the hashtag #globaldinein on Instagram. If you would like to be notified of upcoming posts, please consider subscribing to my blog!