TROPICAL BREEZE CREAM CHEESE POUND CAKE

Tropical breeze cream cheese pound cake image

The day before Easter 2012 I am in the process of making an Italian rice cake (recipe to come later) and I burn the rice! It was too late to start again, so I had a dilemma, I had all the ingredients for the rice cake except the time to make it. I was sitting trying to figure out what I was going to take to my Mom's for dinner...

Provided by Joanna Gotwald

Time 1h15m

Number Of Ingredients 12

Ingredients

6 eggs
2 stick butter, unsalted, softened
2 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 c all purpose flour
1 c dried apricots, chopped fine (measure after chopping)
1 c hazelnuts, chopped
1 medium jar apricot spreadable fruit (i like smuckers brand)
1/2 c coconut, flaked (i like angel flake)

Steps:

1. Preheadt oven to 350 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Grease and flour a bundt cake pan.
2. In a food processor fit with a chopping blade put the 1/4 cup flour and the whole dried apricots. Pulse to chop continuing until the apricots are finely chopped but not a paste. If the apricots 'gum-up' add just a touch more flour to coat the pieces (doing this helps the fruit to stay suspended in the batter during baking). Set Aside
3. In a large mixing bowl, Mix sugar and butter completely until it is blended well and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add the flour, Vanilla extract & baking powder and mix together well. The batter should be thick and cream.
4. Using a spatula, gently fold into the batter the chopped apricots and chopped nuts. Do not over mix; when making a pound cake you want it to be dense without a lot of air, if you mix too much you incorporate too much air into the batter.
5. spoon the Thick batter into the prepared bundt pan, smoothing and leveling. Tap the pan a couple times on a counter top to settle the batter.
6. Bake in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes.
8. Invert cake onto wire rack and while the cake is still hot, spread the cake with about 1/4 to 1/2 of the jar of Apricot spreadable fruit (put the opened jar in the refrigerator for the next day) and then leave the cake to cool completely. When completely cooled cover lightly and allow to sit overnight. Doing this allows the spreadable fruit to be absorbed into the cake.
9. In the morning on the day of serving, spread the cake once again with the remaining 1/2 jar of apricot spreadable fruit.
10. Spinkle the cake with a good covering of sweetened flaked coconut.
11. Cover until serving. Cut into 1/2 or 1 inch wide pieces and serve with a good cup of coffee or tea.