Cream Cheese Vanilla Pound Cake

A cream cheese pound cake recipe with butter and vanilla. Rich, and dense, and moist and absolutely delicious. Can be served topped by fruit, caramel, dulce de leche, whipped cream or anything else you may think of. The interesting this is, I made this for my kids for years, and they always wanted it plain, it's that good.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
  
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted before measuring
• 6 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (Yes, in addition to the vanilla bean)
  

Preparation:

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and shortening and split the vanilla bean and scrape seeds into mixture. With mixer on medium speed, gradually beat in the sugar. Beat in cream cheese. Add flour, alternating with the eggs, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in vanilla. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan or Bundt cake pan.

Bake at 325° for about 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 25 minutes, until a wooden pick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

A note about the cooking time. This is a very thick batter so it will probably take ALL of the baking times listed if not a little bit longer. Do check the cake often with the wooden pick technique as you don't want it not quite baked in the very middle. By the same token, it can start to burn pretty quickly, so watch it carefully towards the end of the cycle.

I made this recipe for this post in a oblong baking dish, but I really would recommend a tube pan or a Bundt cake pan.