Lemon Streusel Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This was me the other day:  standing in front of the fridge and eyeing a big bag of lemons and a package of cream cheese.  What to do with them?  First thing that came to mind was a lemon cream cheese pound cake.  A) it's relatively easy to pull together and B) could feed the crowd at the office.  Done! To gild the lily a little further I decided to add a streusel topping.  Streusel qualifies the cake as a breakfast food, right?     

Be forewarned that while the batter comes together pretty quickly, the cake does take a while to bake in the oven.  I had to check for doneness three times when I made this one for the blog and even then it wasn't 100% to my satisfaction.  Seasoned bakers will notice that the inside top part of the cake could have taken another ten minutes.  Impatience on my part was to blame! It's long baking duration was most likely attributed to starting the oven at 325 degrees which was too low.  Next time I'll get the oven to 350 and then bake.  Oh well, still tastes pretty dang good!

Lemon Streusel Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Cake

1 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

3 cups sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 large eggs, room temperature

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

 

Streusel Topping

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

zest of 1 lemon 

Lemon Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour a tube pan (10 x 4 inches) and set aside.

 

In a small bowl mix all the ingredients for the streusel topping and set aside. 

 

In another small bowl whisk all the ingredients for the lemon glaze and set aside.

Beat sugar, butter and cream cheese in large bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment until light and fluffy.  Add in lemon juice, vanilla extract and salt.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing completely after each addition.  Add flour and mix until smooth.

 

Pour batter in to prepared tube pan and smooth the top.   Evenly sprinkle the streusel topping over the cake batter.

Bake cake for 1 1/2 hours or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes on wire rack.  Remove from pan and let sit until completely cool.   Drizzle lemon glaze evenly over the entire cake.