Yes, I'm still baking. Our "family" arrives soon, so the eating frenzy is not QUITE over until New Years! The good news is that while I LOVE to bake, I do not have a sweet tooth. I have actually LOST over five pounds this month! (Must be all that cooking and dish washing!)
This will be served for breakfast tomorrow with berries and those do-ahead puff pastry cheesy-bacon scramble egg thingies. (I need a better name for that recipe!)
Cream Cheese Cherry-Vanilla Pound Cake (Taste of the South's: Christmas Cooing Southern Style)
1 1/2 c. butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 c. sugar
5 eggs
3 c. flour (plus 1/4 c. for cherries)
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
Two 10 oz. jars of maraschino cherries, drained and chopped
1 vanilla bean, slpit and scraped
Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a 10-cup bundt pan. In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add sugar, beating until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a medium bowl, combine 3 c. flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating until combined. Stir in scraped vanilla bean seeds.
In a small bowl combine cherries and 1/4 c. flour. Toss to coat. Stir in to cake batter. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour and 20 min., or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10-15 min. Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.
