Growing up people always tell you that everyone is good at something.  When you are grown, the task is to figure out what you’re good at and leverage those skills into a career.  Easier said than done.

What do you mean I can’t make a career out of crocheting doilies and telling my brothers what to do?

But that’s what I’m good at…

Grad school has come in handy in this respect, it helps me turn bossiness into “leadership skills” and crocheting into “creative thinking,” but it’s not so helpful with my baking habit.  When I decided to make a cream cheese pound cake last weekend, however, I knew I should turn to a specialist.  Considering the traditional ingredients in pound cake, along with the addition of cream cheese, one name came to mind: Paula Deen.

It was the right decision.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

yields 2 8×4 loaves or 1 tubular bunt cake

From Paula

Ingredients

• 3 sticks room temp butter (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 (8oz) package cream cheese
• 3 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp almond extract (or vanilla if you’re not an almond fan)
• 3 cups AP flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 6 eggs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325 and prepare pans.
2. Cream together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy.  Add sugar and extract, beat to combine.
3. In a separate bowl combine flour and baking powder.
4. Add one third of the dry ingredients to the wet along with two eggs.  Mix to combine.  Repeat process twice more.  Try not to over-mix (Also try not to eat all the batter before you bake it, it tastes very much like cream cheese frosting and is hard to resist).
5. Pour batter into pans and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until tester comes out clean (mine took longer).

My advice: If you need to meditate on your own “special skills,” do it over a slice (or five) of this cake.  It will make for a much more positive experience.