Red Velvet Marble Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I love bundts.

And Target and chicklit and sausage-topped pizza and sparkly flower earrings and Nathan.

The bundt thing though- that's a new one.  For the last nine months I hated them.  Feared them.  I cursed them from my baking repertoire last spring when my beloved orange strawberry bundt broke in half.  (Disclaimer: no flavors were harmed in the baking of said cake).

But in honor of all things valentine, I faced the bundt yet again, red velvet style, and we fell in love.  Cake pan's got some competition.  So easy, so quick, so delicious, with a slight chocolate flavor and a tangy cream cheese swirl.  And she's a beauty, too, making dark spots and fine lines look gooood. 

Red Velvet Marble Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Makes one 6-cup bundt cake (double recipe for 10 to 12-cup bundt cake)

3/4 cup butter, softened

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs, room temperature

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Red food coloring

Preheat oven to 325 degrees . Use butter to generously grease a 6-cup bundt cake pan.

Cream together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar for about 5 minutes or until very light and fluffy.  Stir in the extract.  With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and the eggs alternately, beginning and ending with the flour, adding one egg at a time and small portions of flour. Do not over-mix!

Divide the batter in half.  In one half mix in 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and several drops of red food coloring until well-blended and desired "redness" is reached.

Pour half of red batter into the prepared pan.  Top with all of the white batter, and then add the remaining half of red batter last.  Gently swirl with a knife throughout the pan for a marbled effect. 

Bake at 325 degrees  for 40-45 minutes (70-75 minutes for large bundt) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Adapted from The Baker Chick.