Cream Cheese Poundcake

I know it's January and everyone is dieting- or at least "cutting back on sweets".  BUT it's my birthday this week and I believe a cake would be lovely! I can think of many complicated, fancy, frou frou cakes that would be yummy, but IF I have one, I will be the one baking it so I get to chose. My all time favorite is an old Southern favorite... Cream Cheese Pound Cake. It tastes best after a few days in a cool place (usually the formal dining room table covered in Grandmother's Depression glass cake dome.)  Cream Cheese Pound Cake becomes moist and the flavors "ripen.

Slice it thickly and top with fresh fruit and ice cream. Slice it thinly, slather it with butter and toast it for breakfast. Drizzle it with chocolate or lemon glaze. Dust it with powdered sugar. Frost it with caramel icing (ahhhh.. if only Mama were here to make it!). Dollop it with REAL whipped cream and  sprinkle with chocolate curls..........

However you serve it, you've first got to bake it! So, let's get to the kitchen! This is soooo easy....

Cream Cheese Pound Cake
1 cup margarine, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened (no substitutes!)
1 (8-oz.) pkg cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups sifted cake flour (or use all-purpose, sift 3 times and remove 2T per cup)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract, optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Generously grease a 10-inch tube pan with Crisco (not Pam!).

Combine margarine, butter and cream cheese in large bowl of heavy duty electric mixer; beat well. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time; beat well after each addition. Add flour to creamed mixture; mix until well combined. Stir in flavorings. Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 mintues. Remove from pan and cool completely.