Before I tell you about this delicious recipe for “Panque” or Cream cheese pound cake, let me share a little bit our bread in Mexico. The wheat bread had always been an important part of our daily life in México, since the times of Spanish colonization, when the Spaniards brought wheat bread as part of their gastronomy.
Cream Cheese Pound Cake | Panque
Later in the 1800’s, Mexican bakers enhanced their repertoire with the arrival of the French. This rich foreign influence, with the added creativity of the Mexican bakers, created a large variety of Mexican bread and pastries.
A popular tradition among people in Mexico is to enjoy a hot cup of coffee always accompanied with sweet bread, or sweet breakfast roll. We love to enjoy it in the morning as our breakfast or during the late afternoon. Some days I like to have this combo for my dinner. It’s a Mexican tradition that has been preserved throughout our history, and passed from generation to generation, to the point that many restaurants still offer you a basket with a variety of sweet bread at your table during breakfast time.
Bread is always present in our table, and it is a topic of conversations over breakfast as well as the source of popular sayings. Some examples are: “When you are hungry there is no hard bread”, “The sorrows with bread are less painful”, “bread to bread and wine to wine”, just to mention a few.
But let me tell you about this delicious and easy to bake “panque” recipe (pound cake). This has an addition of cream cheese, it is my way to substitute the use of the cream that forms and floats at the top of raw milk when you boil the milk. In Mexico, it is called “Panque de Natas”. In old times, raw milk used to be boiled and the cream that formed was saved until you have enough to use it for desserts or to prepare this delicious bread. I hope you will enjoy it as much as we do!
How to make Cream Cheese Pound Cake
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 325F. Grease one 5 x 9 loaf pan. I like to grease the pan with vegetable shortening and then dust it with flour. (Please check the ingredients list below)
- Cream butter and cream cheese in a large bowl using a mixer on high speed. Add the sugar, little by little, until mixture gets fluffy.
- Reduce speed to medium, and add eggs one by one, then add vanilla extract.
- Add sugar gradually, scraping down the bowl sides.
- Reduce speed to low, and add flour and salt, adding flour little by little. Finally, stir in the pecans using a spatula. Place batter into the pan. Tap to settle the batter and smooth top with the spatula.
- Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when you insert it. Let it cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes and then remove from pan. Completely cool before slicing.
Enjoy with a glass of milk or a hot cup of coffee or chocolate.
Provecho!
Mely,
If you like this recipe, check this quick Mexican Muffins "Mantecadas" recipe and How to Make Cinnamon Rolls
For recipes in Spanish visit México en mi Cocina.
📖 Recipe
Cream Cheese Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ stick to butter room temperature
- 4 oz Cream Cheese half package room temperature
- 1 ¼ cup of sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 ½ Cup of flour sifted.
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F. Grease one 5 x 9 loaf pan. I like to grease the pan with vegetable shortening and then dust it with flour.
- Cream butter and cream cheese in a large bowl using a mixer on high speed. Add the sugar, little by little, until mixture gets fluffy.
- Reduce speed to medium, and add eggs one by one, then add vanilla extract.
- Add sugar gradually, scraping down the bowl sides.
- Reduce speed to low, and add flour and salt, adding flour little by little. Finally, stir in the pecans using a spatula. Place batter into the pan. Tap to settle the batter and smooth top with the spatula.
- Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when you insert it. Let it cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes and then remove from pan. Completely cool before slicing.
Albert M. Dominguez
Hi Mely Martinez,
Thank you for sharing your Cream Cheese Pound Cake. I just got done baking one.
In your Ingredients list it requires 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. However in the instructions it never indicates when to add it in. I also was confused on the sugar instructions, it mentions it in line item 2 and 4, so I did half and half on both line items.
I also had an issue with it rising in the middle of the pan. After speaking with a baker about it he said I should have considered the high altitude I live in witch is Colorado.
Please understand that I am new to baking and I am one of those people that need perfect instructions on how to make an item. I can't wait to taste it. It is cooling down as I type.
Again, thank you for sharing. All your recipes look amazing and I can't wait to make more of them!
Jude
My dad always toasted pound cake and ate it for breakfast, buttered. Instead, I toasted pecans in butter and salt and put them over slices of the cake along with butter pecan ice cream......yeah, I will be making this again. And again.
Gabriela
Hola, una pregunta. ¿tengo que hacer alguna modificación para la altura de cms?
Gracias!
Mely Martínez
Hola Gabriela,
Te refieres a la altura del molde para el pan o altitud a nivel del mar?
Marcela
I love this recipe!😍😋thank you🙏And God bless you😇
Tony
This cake is very good, goes especially well with a glass of cold milk.
The only problem I have with this recipe is that if I use the temperature given (325F) the cake will end up sunken in the middle.
I accidentally did this recipe at 350F once and the cake turned out looking pretty good, the only explanation that occurs to me is the you used an oven with a fan because mine doesn't have a Fab and I have seen some recipes giving different temperatures depending on the type of oven.
mmartinez
Hello Tony,
Thank you for stopping back and telling us about the temperature difference. My stove is an electric stove, the oven is a little weird, even though I have an oven temperature thermometer inside. My feeling is that something may be off with it. I used to had a gas stove for 11 years that worked like a charm, I hope people use their good judgment like you did when making the bread.
Happy cooking!
Tony
This cake is pretty good, goes especially well with a glass of cold milk, the only problem I had is that if I bake it using the temperature in the recipe the middle of the cake is not going to rise and the center of the cake will be sunken
Anne Flores
This was absolutely delicious! I added raisins for good measure!
mmartinez
Hello Anne,
Raisins are also a popular addition to the pound cake in Mexico. We call it " Panque con pasas". Thank you for sharing the idea so others can add raisins too.
Febe
Ese pound cake se ve delish!!! tengo que comprar el queso crema, vegatariano para mi, ¿tendras receta para los panbazos y misiotes ?
Gracias....
mmartinez
Hola Febe,
La receta de los pambazos la encuentras aquí en el blog. Pambazo Mexicano
Elaine Stenzel
i found it a little dry,so i made cream cheese frosting and it was delish.