Cream cheese Pound cake (cold oven)

Hello folks! The chances are you have forgotten me completely, owing to my absence in the past few months.... The thing is, I was too busy with my sweet creation, that I didn't want to miss out a single moment of his growing up... I did miss blogging though, but then the baby came first!

Well, now he is over 6 months and giving us a wonderful time. He is a co operative baby, touch wood, lets us do our work provided we are around, talking out to him every few minutes. More updates on him here. Let me now get on to today's recipe!

Here's Cream cheese Pound cake, one of the best cakes I've ever baked! it was baked sometime during my pregnancy, in the second trimester, to carry along for a trip we were going. With my pregnancy hormones in full action, throwing up at its peak, food aversion at its maximum, there were very few foods that I craved for, and that I felt like cooking or baking. One of them was this cake and boy, was I glad I baked it! I just loooooved it! I've had it for breakfast, and lunch and as snack on a couple of days during that trip!

Well, it makes a pretty big cake and keeps well, fresh for at least 3 days. It has such a wonderful taste and a good crumb texture.It is a cold oven cake, meaning the oven is not preheated before placing the batter. We both loved loved having it and finishing off the huge cake in just a couple of days! The calories, you say? Of course, I was pregnant with just a handful of cravings, and we were on a trip to a nature reserve, which involved a LOT of walking and walking!

Now, here's the recipe...

Creamcheese Pound cake (Cold oven)

Preparation time: 15 min 

Baking time: 60 - 65 minutes 

Source: Versatile Kitchen

Ingredients:

Cake flour - 1 1/2 cups (See notes)

Baking Powder - 3/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 1/4 cups
Cream cheese - 4 oz (at room temperature)
Butter - 1/2 cup softened
Vanilla - 1 Tbsp
Eggs - 3 large (at room temperature)

Method: 

• Grease and flour a large loaf pan. I used a ring mould that I had recently bought
• In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder. Set aside. 
• Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar till fluffy about 3 minutes scraping the bottom couple of times. 
• Add eggs one at a time and continue beating. 
• Add vanilla and beat. 
• Running the mixer on low speed, add half of the dry ingredients. 
• When it has incorporated, add the remaining and mix it all well. 
• Pour into the prepared pan. 
• Place it in the middle rack of the oven and turn it on to 170 C or 325 F. 
• Bake for 60 - 65 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine was done in 60 min.
• Cool on the rack in the pan for 15 minutes and then turn it on to the wire rack to cool completely. 
• Slice after it has completely cooled and you get awesomely neat slices!

Notes:

• To make 1 1/2 cups cake flour, take 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour in a big bowl. Remove 3 Tbsp of the flour from the bowl and add 3 Tbsp of corn starch. Sift very well, 3-4 times.
• The cake can be doubled and baked in a 12 cup bundt pan, says Champa. In that case, the baking time would be about 80 min.