Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I made a quick trip to our local farmer's market yesterday afternoon. I didn't intend to buy much, just some fresh, local, free-range chickens. But, of course, I can't just walk into the market and only go to that one booth to get my chicken... I've got to look around and check things out! :) Several places had some of the season's first local strawberries. They smelled so good, looked so beautiful, and tasted so sweet that I decided to buy two quarts of them. I figured I'd keep some out for fresh eating for a day or two for me and then I'd hull and freeze the rest of them. When I brought them home, though, Kevin had other ideas. He asked me to make a pound cake so we could have strawberry shortcake last night. So I went looking for a pound cake recipe and found one for cream cheese pound cake on allrecipes that sounded great. It was the first time I'd made a pound cake and I'd heard they can be tricky. I didn't have any problems, though, and they turned out sooooo good! I used my loaf pans to make them - one medium-sized loaf and three mini loaves. We used a mini loaf last night with our shortcake and I froze the others. I totally forgot to take a picture of them, though, so you'll have to use your imagination on this one. But take my word for it, this cake has a great vanilla-y, sweet, cream cheese-y flavor. Its so nice and moist, more light tasting than many pound cakes I've had.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese (neuchatel)
1 1/2 cups butter (unsalted, and I used 1 1/4 cup butter, plus 1/4 cup buttermilk (to use it totally up))
3 cups white sugar
6 eggs (local, organic, free-range)
3 cups all-purpose flour (organic)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (organic, and I used 2 teaspoons)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C) grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.

In a large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy. (this will take a few minutes with a stand mixer, but be sure you wait for it to get fluffy to get your cake to turn out properly)

Add eggs two at a time, beating well with each addition. Add the flour all at once and mix in (don't beat it, just mix it in to incorporate... if you beat it, your cakes will be much more dense). Add vanilla.

Pour into a 10 inch tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees F (160 degrees C) for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Check for doneness at 1 hour. A toothpick inserted into center of cake will come out clean. (it may take longer than the suggested time to bake, so be prepared)