Surprise Inside Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Our mom was helping a friend of hers who had lost a daughter to cancer. They were putting together a menu for the memorial service and needed some squares and loaves for dessert.

I volunteered to make a loaf for them. I wanted to do something a little bit special to help celebrate her daughter's life. I found out that her daughter's favorite color was blue so I decided to make this loaf with a lovely blue flower inside. 

Sometimes little things can mean a lot. 

Surprise Inside Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Ingredients

Blue Flower

 2 recipes for our Vanilla Cake 

(OR 1 box white cake mix & ingredients to prepare it)

blue food coloring

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

8 oz (1 brick) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, room temp

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

Directions

Prepare Blue Flower batter - Preheat oven to 350. Line the bottom of a jelly roll pan with parchment paper, set aside. 

Prepare the Vanilla Cake as per instructions HERE. (Or, if you are using a box mix - as per directions on box.) 

Once batter is mixed, add in as much of the blue food coloring as needed to reach the color you like. Pour the cake mix into the prepared pan. (By the way, in the following photos I did 2 different colors by splitting the batter in half before adding the colors.)

Bake until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean, about 20 - 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it. 

When done, remove from heat and let cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Run a knife around the outside of the cake to loosen from edge of pan. Carefully invert cake onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

When cool - using a small cookie cutter in whichever shape you prefer, cut out the cake into shapes. Set aside while you prepare pound cake batter.

Prepare Pound Cake batter - Spray a 9 X5 loaf pan with cooking spray, line with parchment paper, and then lightly spray again.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, scraping down sides as necessary. 

Beat in the sugar until smooth.

Beat in vanilla.

Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined.

Beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just mixed.

Place several spoonfuls of pound cake batter into the bottom of prepared loaf pan. 

Place the cutout, colored shapes into the center of the pan. Be sure to press the shapes together firmly as you put them in the pan.

When you can't fit in any more shapes, carefully spoon the pound cake batter around the cut out shapes, being careful not to break off any pieces. Be sure to completely cover the top of the shapes.

Bake at 350 until toothpick inserted near the center - but NOT in the center where the shapes are - comes out clean, about 60 minutes or so. Top should be golden brown.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes or so then gently run a knife around the outside of the loaf to loosen from sides of pan. Use the parchment paper "handles" to lift out the loaf. Let cool completely on wire rack.

This slices better when it has had time to cool completely. I left mine, covered, in the fridge over night and then cut it the next day.

It is a lovely way to bring a little bit of color to a plate of squares and loaves. It is also a cute thing to make for Easter (use an egg shape), Halloween (use a ghost or pumpkin shape), Christmas (see HERE, we did a gingerbread man), pretty much any holiday or event. 

It does take a bit of work as you have to make 2 cakes BUT it is sooooo worth it. You can mix up flavors and colors for endless variations. Plus, you can make the first cake far in advance and simply freeze it until you are ready to make the loaf. 

When I finally finish off the loaf I made with the green cake (from the above photos), I will post a photo of that one too!

UPDATE - Here is a pic of the green flower loaf - 

We're sharing at these great linky  parties - Six Sister's Stuff, Horrific Knits, Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons, Carole's Chatter, Feeding Big,