Cream Cheese and Chocolate Marble Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Chocolate Marble Cream Cheese Pound Cake

"Plain" in a tube pan

Lately, life is like a One Note Samba:
SNOW


I can't not smile watching this, so I had to share it with you. Watch it all. (It's easier than baking the cake.)


Truth: The wheel (and the pound cake) was invented... but - -
I tweaked (improved) it and added a chocolate marble variation.


There are several things you should know before you make this pound cake. The first is that it must be made the day before you intend to eat it. It morphs into a different product overnight, so you have to be patient and not claw into it right away. Also, I was happy to know that my dear friend, who also made this cake, had the same experience as I did, where there was a little 'seepage' from the bottom when it first went into the oven. I think this is because of the large quantity of eggs in the batter. In this 'new and improved' recipe, the addition of a small amount of whole wheat pastry flour may help to hold up the batter some.  But, do this: Put the tube pan on a sheet pan or bake it in a bundt pan or in a couple of loaf pans. (One solution was to open the windows to stop the fire alarm and later, to self-clean the oven.) 


Something else you should know is that this cake is almost too good. It has a fine but firm texture and can stand up to any berry or scoop of your favorite ice cream. It can be sliced and toasted and buttered and jammed, or you can enjoy it plain. It will become your basic pound cake from here on in. Promise.

This recipe yields one ginourmous cake that feeds at least 10 people. I use Philadelphia Brand cream cheese and either 83% European style butter, such as "Plugra", or, if you don't have access to this product, my fave American butter is "Land O Lakes". Make sure your butter isn't salted and it's FRESH. Here's the benchmark: If you take a little bit with your finger and taste it and it tastes like the fridge, so will your cake.


I added some whole wheat pastry flour. It's a small amount, and it supports the structure, adds a slight nutty flavor without the pound cake masquerading as a 'healthy choice, loaded with b vitamins and fiber'. If you're looking for a healthier baked good, try my Tabula Rasa Bran Muffins.


I use Baldwin's pure vanilla extract (exclusively). It makes a huge difference. My other 'secret' flavor is King Arthur Flour's Fiori di Sicilia. You don't have to buy the 4 oz. bottle (image at left), but if you do, it will last - you keep it in the fridge. It's a magical combination of vanilla and citrus extracts that lifts and enhances the flavor of any butter or nut-based product. You can find another link to this truly distinctive extract in my recipe for Rhubarb Muffins. Or, you can go directly to King Arthur Flour and order it from them. Sign up with them, and when they offer 'free shipping', that's when you should load up on stuff.

I like Bob's Red Mill for my whole wheat pastry flour. You can buy their wonderful milled products online, directly, (click on the link above), through Amazon (on left), or at better markets. In New York Fairway Markets carries a huge selection of Bob's Red Mill stuff. You I can get lost in the Bob's aisle at Fairway.


For chocolate - well, that's a whole other story. You can go as high end as you want. For this recipe, I went 'middle'. I used 60% Jacques House Selection discs. Jacques Torres' baking chocolate is very reasonably priced and great to have around. 72% dark chocolate disks are $9.50 for the lb., mail order, and they're great for baking.  

These products are all relatively easy to find, and worth hunting down. 

Cream Cheese or

Chocolate Marble Cream Cheese

Pound Cake

adapted from Staff Meals from Chanterelle by Waltuck and Phillips

by Blue Heron Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 package (8 oz.) Philadelphia brand cream cheese, room temperature

12 oz. (3 sticks) unsalted butter, European style preferred, room temperature

3 cups sugar

6 eggs, size large, at room temperature

1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tsp. Fiori di Sicilia extract (optional, but recommended)

2 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour  

1 tsp. kosher salt
8 oz. dark chocolate, melted and cooled (if making chocolate marble)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350º F. and lightly butter a 10-inch tube pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Truc: melt butter and use a pastry brush to butter pans. make sure the brush you use is only used for pastry. if you use it for barbecue sauce, your cake will taste like baby back ribs.

Measure flours and salt into a small bowl, whisk together and set aside.

Place the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of your Kitchen Aid or electric mixer, or using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat until smooth.

Add the sugar, increase the speed to high, and beat until light and airy, 5 minutes with a hand held mixer, less with a Kitchen Aid.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. (With the fabulous silicone Beater Blade, you won't need to do this. See my post My Kitchen Aid Does the Tighten Up.) Add the vanilla and fiori di sicilia (if using) then the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated.

You can do this: mix until almost all incorporated and complete the mixing by folding the rest in BY HAND. Less mixing makes for less gluten makes for a more tender crumb. (This isn't bread, sweetheart.)  

If you're making the chocolate marble pound cake, melt and cool the chocolate. This is one of the only good reasons to own a microwave oven (but stand back when you turn it on.) Remove 1 1/2 cups of the batter and in a separate bowl (the one you melted the chocolate in would be a good choice - just be sure it's large enough!), mix together, the cooled,melted chocolate and the batter.


For "plain" Cream Cheese Pound Cake: Pour the batter in the prepared pan and even out the top. Bake until golden brown on a rack in the middle of the oven, until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean, about 1 1/4 hours. (You can use prepared loaf pans or the paper loaf pans .. these don't need to be buttered - just plop the batter in them, put them on a cookie sheet and bake. They're great for 'giving'. Bake time will be less - watch them like a hawk dove.)


For Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake: If you're making one large cake or several small ones in loaf pans or paper loaf pans, the procedure is pretty much the same: First, spread the white batter on the bottom. Plop tablespoons or teaspoons of chocolate batter, depending on the size of the loaf, about an inch apart. Cover the chocolate batter with more white batter and spread white batter carefully over the chocolate batter. With a dinner knife, cut down into the loaf or tube pan and lift up the batter, doing this several times through the batter, but being careful to not fully mix the two batters together. You can make a nice Fiorentini pattern for fun!

When cake tester comes out clean (anywhere from 40 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, depending on size of cake and your oven), place on a cake rack (if you've baked this on a cookie sheet, remove it from the sheet) and cool. If you've baked this in a tube pan or in a loaf pan, remove and cool completely. When completely cooled, wrap well and leave overnight.


This cake needs to 'rest' overnight. Trust me, it will taste much better 'tomorrow'. 


It freezes extremely well. You can keep it in the fridge too. 


If you live in New York, it will bring you some relief from snow grief.


Stay warm. 
Happy Valentine's Day.


peace and love,
jane