It's called pound cake because you gain at least a pound eating it

I made a pound cake yesterday. This pound cake, to be exact. It was fabulous. (The picture above is not the cake I actually made, but mine looked just like this.)

If you look though the ingredients, you'll quickly understand why it was fabulous:
-six eggs
-3 cups of sugar
-one brick of cream cheese
-3 (!!!) sticks of butter

Did your thighs suddenly gain a pound just by reading that? Mine did.

I did adapt the recipe just a little bit. Because Steve and I love lemon pound cake, I added the juice of half a large lemon and the zest of the entire lemon to the batter. I also reduced the vanilla to only one teaspoon and left out the almond extract because, well, I don't have any. This made the cake subtly lemon. Next time, I'll add the juice of the entire lemon along with the zest for more lemon flavor. I'd also like to make the strawberry coulis next time and add some fresh mint to it.

The recipe writer also recommends only using Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese. I used Trader Joe's and I probably couldn't tell you the difference. I don't think this is a recipe where I could use less fat - the cake needs the moisture and richness provided by the fat and eggs.

The hallmark of pound cake is the crusty, cracked top and this recipe produced that beautifully. In fact, it's my favorite part of the cake. I also must take this moment to give a shout of thanks to the person at PAM cooking sprays that thought up the spray made especially for baking. They are a genius. It's a dream spray. I used it instead of buttering and flouring the bundt pan. It's much easier, less messy, and it's never let me down. Nothing sticks to this stuff. I know baking purists will give me a hard time for using this stuff, but I really like it and see no reason why I shouldn't use it. It also smells like cake batter. Yum.

I cut the cake in half - it makes a huge amount for just the two of us - and put one half in the freezer, tightly wrapped in three layers of Saran wrap and one layer of foil. I can't wait to have a reason to thaw it out!