I purchased a container of Creole cream cheese the other day for a recipe that I couldn’t get the other ingredients for. As I’ve been craving chocolate, I thought I’d make a cake with it. I have a recipe for a pound cake that uses this uniquely Louisiana treat and a recipe for chocolate pound cake and I decided that combining the two should hit the spot.
It makes a deep chocolate cake that isn’t too dense, as the Creole cream cheese adds plenty of moistness to the batter. I had a slice with a big glass of milk and it was wonderful.
If you don’t have access to (or don’t want to make) Creole cream cheese, for this recipe I would substitute sour cream.
Chocolate Creole Cream Cheese Pound Cake
2 cups cake flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Creole cream cheese
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar, optional
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour two loaf pans.
In a medium bowl, sift together cake flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream unsalted butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Stir in vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with Creole cream cheese. Stir in pecans. Pour half of batter in each prepared pan. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over batter.
Bake 75–80 minutes, rotating the pans midway through baking. Cook until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes then turn onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Pound cakes freeze well, so wrap the second one well with plastic wrap and seal in a zip top bag for a cake for any occasion.
