Cream Cheese-Cherry Vanilla Pound Cake

This cake has already gotten rave reviews in my house.
Here’s a rich classic pound cake with the pretty color bright and dotting the tasty glaze made with 7up. Let me encourage you to bake this cake

Cream Cheese-Cherry Vanilla Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
  
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
  
• 3 cups sugar
  
• 5 large eggs, room temperature
  
• 3 1/4 all purpose flour, divided
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 (10 oz) jars maraschino cherries, drained and puree in a blender or food processor.
  
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped and reserved (I used 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)

Glaze

• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons Cherry 7-Up
  
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated lime zest

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 10 cup Bundt pan.
   In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Add sugar, beating until fluffy.
2. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.
3. In another bowl, sift together 3 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add, one cup at a time, of flour mixture to butter mixture until combined.
4. Puree cherries with 1/4 cup flour. Add to batter and gently stir. Add vanilla bead seeds. Stir.
5. Spoon into bundt pan and gently tap on counter to release any air bubbles.
   Bake approximately 1 hour 20 minutes or until wooden pick comes out clean.
6. Let cake cool in pan 10-15 minutes. Turn it out onto your cake plate.

Glaze:

1. Beat with an electric mixer until well combined. Glaze should be the consistency of corn syrup, add more powdered sugar (a tablespoon at a time) if necessary to thicken glaze.
2. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake. Serve and enjoy!

Happy Baking!

COOK’S NOTE: If you only have regular 7-Up just add a splash of maraschino cherry juice and make sure the liquid still measures ¾ cup in the cake. For the glaze use 1 ½ tablespoons soda and ½ tablespoon maraschino cherry juice.