This cake tastes better as it sits. Cover uneaten cake tightly with plastic wrap and aluminum foil. Store at room temp for two days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw in the in the fridge and then bring out to room temp. We don't want to store it in the fridge, because a cake dries out in the fridge.
Cinnamon Swirl Pound Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 2 1/12 sticks 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups cake flour
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 6 whole eggs
- ⅓ cup sour cream room temp
- ½ cup buttermilk room temp
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ juice and zest from lemon
Cinnamon Swirl:
- ¼ cup blackstrap molasses
- ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ½ the cake batter
Streusel Topping:
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup unsalted butter cold and cut into small pieces
Cream Cheese Glaze:
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar sifted
- 3 tablespoons milk or heavy cream + more if needed
- 1 very small lemon zest and juice
Instructions
- To begin, you want to be sure all your cold ingredients get brought up to room temperature. Preheat your oven to 350°F, but we will bake at 325°F. Prep your streusel topping mixture by combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl and mix with your hands until it clumps together like wet sand. Set the streusel topping mixture in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
- Then, you'll want to prep your 9x5" loaf pan. We're going to line our loaf pan with parchment and spray it with cooking spray really well. You could also line it with parchment and butter and flour it really well. Either method works fine.
- Anyway, once you have everything prepped, we can begin. Start by sifting all your dry ingredients which includes the cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon, lemon zest, and set aside.
- Next, combine your sugars in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Next, you can combine the wet ingredients including, the eggs, buttermilk, oil, sour cream, vanilla, oil and lemon juice in a large measuring cup and set aside. You can give it a whisk, but it's not necessary.
- Combine the cinnamon swirl ingredients, sans the cake batter, into a small measure cup and set aside.
- Cream the softened cream cheese and butter together for about two or three minutes on medium speed.
- Turn the mixer off and scrape the bowl down well. Turn the mixer on to a medium speed and gradually in the sugars. Turn the speed up back to medium and mix for about five minutes until light, fluffy and more voluminous.
- Turn the mixer back onto a medium-low speed and gradually add in the wet ingredients. Wait a bit between each addition so that the mixture can absorb the liquids. Once all the liquids are added in, stop the mixer. The mixture may appear separated and curdled, but that's normal.
- Add the dry ingredients all at once and gently fold in until just combined. Don't overmix!
- Use a large cookie scoop to scoop out half of the cake batter into a separate medium bowl. Pour in the cinnamon swirl ingredients in the measuring cup into the bowl. Fold in to combine until uniform in color. Don't overmix.
- Use the same cookie scoop to scoop out three normal batter into the prepared loaf pan. Space the scoops out into the pan, meaning you place one scoop in one corner, another scoop in the opposite side corner and one in the middle. Then scoop out three more scoops from the cinnamon swirl batter and place in the empty spot in the loaf pan. You want to make sure to mix it up. Be sure not to overfill your pan.
- Use a skewer, offset spatula or pairing knife to do a figure 8 motion to swirl around the batter about 3-4 times. Don't over do it or you won't get a swirl, you'll just get a blended batter. Tap the batter over the counter.
- Take the streusel topping out of the fridge and crumble the streusel over the top of the batter. Place the pan onto a baking sheet, which we're doing in case it overflows. Bake at 325°F for 60-90 minutes or more, if needed. Check at the 50 minute mark. Halfway through baking, tent the top with aluminum foil. Use a skewer to test for doneness. A few moist crumbs should come out on the skewer when testing.
- Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack for about an hour.
- While the cake is cooling, prepare your glaze by mixing together the sifted confectioners sugar, vanilla, salt, lemon, butter and cream cheese. A stand mixer or hand mixer works best for this.Add in a bit of milk or heavy cream at a time until you reach glaze consistency. Drizzle the top of the cake with cream cheese glaze. Enjoy with whipped cream.