With less than 10 ingredients, this Strawberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake is the little cake that could, and boy can it ever. It’s completely versatile and comes together with not much effort in as little time as possible. After all, isn’t that what we’re all looking for in a cake? Especially when we’re craving a sweet treat but don’t really have the time or energy to make something that involved. This cake is for all of us at the moment. The best part about this cake, aside from the taste of course, is that it’s completely versatile. It’s a great base recipe that you can keep up your sleeve and switch it up depending on your mood and what you have on hand. Different berries, fruit, chocolate, nuts or even just plain would be amazing! You can’t got wrong with whichever path you decide to take.
To make the cake, in a small bowl, whisk together the flour and salt and set aside.
**Tip: I’ve written the recipe with all-purpose flour but if you happen to have any cake flour on hand, use that! It’ll make the cake’s texture a little lighter and make a less dense cake.**
In a large bowl, cream together the unsalted butter and cream cheese until fluffy.
**Note: You want to make sure both are very soft at room temperature so that they cream smoothly without any lumps. If you don’t have any butter, you can substitute it for shortening if you have some on hand.**
Add in the granulated sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Add the room temperature eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Then stir in the vanilla extract.
Add in the flour and salt mixture and stir until just combined. You don’t want to over-mix the batter at this point or else you’ll end up with a dry and tough batter. It’s so easy for pound cakes to get tough so you want to be very careful.
In a separate bowl, lightly mash the strawberries to break them down somewhat. You want some small and some larger chunks. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Add to the batter and gently fold with a rubber spatula until evenly distributed.
**Tip: If your strawberries release a lot of moisture when you mash them, try to strain out the berries and leave out that excess liquid. If you add it all to the batter, it’ll add too much moisture to the cake!**
**Tip: This would be great with a wide range of different berries or fruit you might have on hand. Frozen fruit would work as well, just make sure they’re well-thawed and drained so as to not add any unnecessary moisture. Chocolate chips would be great too! Just toss 1/2 cup of chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon of flour before folding it into the batter to prevent them from sinking!**
Pour the batter into a 1lb loaf pan that has been lined with parchment paper and then lightly greased with cookies spray.
**Tip: This is a lot of batter and so you want to use a larger loaf pan for this cake. If all you have is an 8-inch loaf pan, you can use a large square or circle baking pan instead or turn these into cupcakes!**
To make the crumb topping, combine the flour and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the butter and rub with your fingers until crumbly, about the size of peas. Sprinkle evenly over the top of the batter.
**Note: The crumb topping is completely optional and so if you don’t want to make it, you can totally skip it. I love the texture it adds to the loaf and so I recommend it!**
Bake until golden brown and a toothpick, inserted in the middle, comes out clean, about 60 to 75 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool 20 minutes in the pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
The pound cake will slice much easier when it’s completely cooled. You can enjoy it the same day or wrap it up tightly with plastic wrap and store it at room temperature for up to 3 days. It gets better the next day!
This cake also freezes beautifully! Once it has cooled completely, wrap the whole cake (unsliced) tightly in plastic wrap and then wrap it in foil. The foil will help keep it fresh. It’ll keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let thaw completely before slicing.
This is a delicious little pound cake that you can make a thousand different ways, without a lot of complicated ingredients. Hopefully you have them all on hand already which can only mean one thing: you’ll have pound cake in your future, lucky you! As always, I’m here to help. Let me know if you have any questions about substitutions below! Stay safe and stay home, my friends!
Strawberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose or cake flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pint fresh strawberries stemmed and sliced
Topping:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup 1/2 stick cold unsalted butter, diced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 1lb loaf pan with parchment paper and grease lightly with cooking spray and set aside.
- To make the cake, in a small bowl, whisk together the flour and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add in the sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract. Add the flour and stir until just combined. In a separate bowl, lightly mash the strawberries to break them down somewhat. (If your strawberries release a lot of moisture when you mash them, try to strain out the berries and leave out that excess liquid. If you add it all to the batter, it'll add too much moisture to the cake!) Add to the berries to batter and gently fold. Pour into the prepared baking sheet and set aside.
- To make the crumb topping, combine the flour and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the butter and rub with your fingers until crumbly, about the size of peas. Sprinkle over the top of the loaf and bake until golden brown and a toothpick, inserted in the middle, comes out clean, about 60 to 75 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool 20 minutes in the pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Slice and serve or wrap leftovers in plastic and keep at room temperature for up to 3 days. Enjoy!
You’re right- this is exactly what I needed!
I’m wondering if you could use Stevia instead of granulated sugar to make it (relatively) sugar free?
Yum!
Is a one pound loaf pan 9”x 5”.
It is slightly smaller, but a 9″x5″ would work perfectly!
Making tomorrow for our anniversary. Been hard not to make sooner. Dying to try it.
Does it matter if I use salted butter
Not at all. Just omit the salt in the recipe!
Hi, is there any way to change the ratios to fit a smaller/regular sized loaf pan? I don’t remember the exact pan size I just know it’s the most common for bread loafs. It looks delicious I really want to try!
Hello Megan! Because of the number of eggs in the recipe, halving it would prove to be a bit difficult. I suggest making the entire batch, pouring the right amount into whatever loaf pan you have and then pouring the excess into a cupcake tin. Or perhaps making them all into muffins? Or you could also use a larger square or round cake pan would work too!
Is there a way this could be made with frozen berries? We won’t get GOOD berries in my area for quite a while.
You can definitely use frozen berries instead! Just make sure they’re thawed and drained really well before folding into the batter. You don’t want to add too much excess moisture to the batter!
Made it last night. So delicious!