THANK YOU CHANELLE! Again! Hope you don't mind me coping it into my blog! We are trying this ASAP!

THANK YOU CHANELLE! Again! Hope you don't mind me coping it into my blog! We are trying this ASAP!

Fruit + cream cheese + pound cake = YUMMY!

I love pound cake, cream cheese and fresh fruit so much that for Easter dessert, I combined them (I was mildly inspired by Nicole's fabulous Fruit Pizza :) ) I concocted a lemon cream cheese spread that beautifully blended the cake and fresh fruit together. It was heaven!

My favorite cookbook for cakes and breads is the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and I used their pound cake recipe.

Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and hot

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with vegetable oil spray, then line the bottom with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.

2. Process the sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a food processor until combined, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, pour the melted butter through the feed tube in a steady stream, about 30 seconds. Pour the mixture into a large bowl.

3. Sift one-third of the flour mixture over the egg mixture and whisk in (a few streaks of flour should remain). Repeat twice more with the remaining flour mixture and continue to whisk the batter gently until most lumps are gone (do not overmix).

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top, wipe any drops of batter off the sides of the pan. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached, 50 - 60 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

5. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack. Turn the cake right side up, remove the parchment, and let cool to room temperature, about 3 hours.

To Make Ahead
After the cake has cooled, it can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and kept at room temperature for up to 3 days.

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Lemon Cream Cheese Spread

8 oz cold cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
fresh squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon

With a hand mixer beat the cold cream cheese until it is smooth. Add the sugar and beat again until smooth. Add the vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice and beat until smooth. Add more sugar to taste.

Note- make sure you beat the cream cheese first or the mixture will end up lumpy instead of smooth. I learned the hard way. LOL It also makes a great dip for strawberries ~ tastes similar to strawberry lemonade ~ YUM!