High Altitude Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This high altitude cream cheese pound cake is moist and dense, and flecked with real vanilla bean. The rich buttery flavor in this classic pound cake is irresistible, and the cake looks gorgeous baked in a fancy bundt pan. It’s great served plain with a simple dusting of powdered sugar, or with a little lightly sweetened whipped cream and fruit compote. If you’re looking for a simple but delicious pound cake recipe, you’ll love how easy this cake is to make.

Looking for more recipes like this? Don’t miss this butter pecan pound cake with bourbon icing, almond pound cake, and old-fashioned sour cream cake doughnuts.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Easy to Make. The pound cake batter is really easy to make, with your stand mixer doing all the hard work for you as it creams together the butter, cream cheese and sugar.

Basic Pantry Ingredients. Just a few simple ingredients are all you need to make a delicious, homemade pound cake. You’ll really want to try to use real vanilla bean or ground vanilla, though, as it adds so much more flavor. The cardamom, too, adds a wonderful depth of flavor.

Simple but Elegant. I love serving this cake for company, or packing up slices to take to someone’s house. It’s simple but so good, and looks just beautiful baked in a pretty bundt pan. And no one will judge if you skip the fork and just pick up a slice to eat with your hands.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

• Cream Cheese. Be sure to use full-fat cream cheese, not low fat. The fat and acidity makes the cake moist and tender.
• Butter. The butter adds a rich, buttery flavor and gives the cake it’s dense, but moist texture.
• Sugar. Granulated sugar adds sweetness and moisture, as well as helps to brown and caramelize the edges of the cake for that signature golden brown crust that all good pound cakes should have.
• Vanilla. For the best flavor, I used a combination of good-quality vanilla extract, as well as ground vanilla (which is just dried and ground vanilla beans).
• Cardamom. A little ground cardamom complements the vanilla and adds more depth of flavor.
• Eggs. The eggs help to make the cake rise a little, as well as gives the cake strength, richness and structure.
• Flour. All-purpose flour gives the cake strength and structure.
• Baking Powder. Leavening agent, to help the cake rise. This cake doesn’t rise a lot, though, but just enough.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness and enhances the flavors.

TIP: Use the best quality butter, vanilla and other ingredients that you can, to give your cake the best flavor.

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 325 F and thoroughly grease your bundt pan with non-stick baking spray.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, butter, sugar, ground vanilla and vanilla extract on medium speed, scraping the bowl down occasionally, for about 8-10 minutes, until very fluffy and lightened in color (Image 1).
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating each for 30 seconds before adding the next. After you’ve added all the eggs, the batter might look a little grainy or curdled (Image 2). This is normal, and it will come together once you add the dry ingredients.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom. Add the dry ingredients to the batter, and use a whisk to whisk the batter by hand, just until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Scrape up the bottom with a spatula, to make sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed (Image 3).

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• Spoon the batter into your prepared pan and smooth out the top.  Bake for about 40-45 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean or with moist crumbs clinging to it. The crust should be golden brown, pulling away from the sides of the pan and slightly cracked on top.

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• Cool the cake in the pan for exactly 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack, carefully remove the pan, and let cool completely before slicing.  Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days, or freeze indefinitely.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

What bundt pan did you use?

I used the Nordic Ware Jubilee Bundt Pan. It’s made of heavy cast aluminum, and the pan has a 10-cup capacity, making it the perfect size for today’s cream cheese pound cake.

Can I bake this cake in a loaf pan?

Yes you can, but it’s too much batter for one loaf pan. Either scale the recipe down to 2/3, or just bake the extra batter in another smaller pan.

Will this recipe work as a layer cake?

Pound cake is really too dense to be used as a layer cake.

What is ground vanilla, and where can I buy it?

Ground vanilla is simply dried and ground vanilla beans, and adds the most wonderful flavor to baked goods. After scraping the seeds out of a vanilla bean, I will sometimes dry it for a day or two, then grind it with my coffee grinder to make my own ground vanilla. You can also buy ground vanilla on Amazon. If you’re not able to get your hands on any, you should scrape the seeds from a real vanilla bean, or use vanilla bean paste. Don’t confuse ground vanilla with vanilla powder, which has a white color and is simply vanilla flavored sugar.

Why did my cake stick to the bundt pan?

Did you grease the pan thoroughly? Personally, I don’t ever bother with using butter + flour to grease bundt pans, since I don’t trust that they’ll release all the intricate cracks and crevices of the cake design. I always use a non-stick baking spray (not cooking spray) to grease my pans and ensure the cake releases perfectly.

Also, it’s important to cool the cake in the pan for exactly 15 minutes before turning it out. If the cake is too hot or too cold, it might not release without sticking and tearing.

Can I make this recipe if I don’t live at high altitude?

You certainly can, but you’ll likely need to make a few adjustments to the ingredients. I’d suggest reading this article on high altitude baking for guidance.

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