Cream Cheese & Wild Blueberry Pound Cake

Cream Cheese & Wild Blueberry Pound Cake

This cake makes a wonderful breakfast bread, as well as a dessert or tea cake. It’s moist texture makes slicing easy. Most grocery stores carry frozen wild blueberries now. Don’t let them thaw or the juices will streak the batter.

Ingredients:

• 6-3/4 oz. (1-1/2 cups) all-purpose unbleached flour
  
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp. salt
  
• 3 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature (I like Philadelphia brand)
  
• 4 oz. (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, slightly soft (70°F)
  
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
  
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  
• 1 tsp. grated lemon zest
  
• 1 cup wild blueberries

Steps:

1. Heat the oven to 325°F. Spray a loaf pan that’s about 8 x 5 x 3 inches with a nonstick coating.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt until well blended. With an electric mixer (I use the paddle attachment on my stand mixer), beat the cream cheese and butter until very pale and little tails have formed. Sprinkle in the sugar and beat well until slightly fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until blended before adding the next. With the mixer on low, add the flour, vanilla, and lemon zest, and mix until almost incorporated but not quite. Switch from the mixer to a stiff rubber spatula and mix just until the batter is well blended and smooth, taking care to scrape the bowl’s bottom and sides. Gently fold in the berries.
3. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and bake in the middle of the oven until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it when inserted in the center, 60 to 65 minutes if using fresh berries, 75 to 90 minutes if using frozen. Let the cake cool for about 15 minutes and then invert the pan and lightly tap it to release the cake. Cool completely on a rack before serving.