Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake and Being Happy

As a kid, I was always weirdly happy.  I scanned a few of my baby pictures while I was at my parent’s house.  All of them looked like these pictures…stupid shit-eating grins. 

I would get really moody and sad as a teenager and still do sometimes today, but more often than not, I’m happy.  Maybe this is a simple philosophy, but I don’t care.  You have so little control over anything, but the one thing you can control is your attitude.  You can actually choose it.  You can’t always stick with having a good attitude, but more often than not if you tell yourself it will be a good day - it can be.  It isn’t like stupid stuff does not bother me, it does, but I can choose the level of how much I let things annoy me.  It makes me happy to make those around me happy.  I know it is kind of corny (popcorn makes me happy, too btw) but it works for me and it keeps me smiling just like I did when I was a baby.  Another thing that keeps me smiling is this cake.  Give it a try!

Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake (www.betsylife.com)

Ingredients - cake

1 ½ cups butter, softened

3 cups sugar

1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened

6 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon almond extract

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Wooden skewer

Ingredients – strawberry glaze

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

3 tablespoons strawberry jell-o, dry

3 tablespoons cornstarch

Preparation

Mix together and bring to a boil.  Let it thicken slightly, it gets thicker as it cools. 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy.  Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add cream cheese, beating until creamy.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.  Gradually add flour to butter mixture.  Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition, stopping to scrape bowl as needed.  Stir in almond and vanilla extracts.  Pour one-third of batter into a greased and floured 10-inch (14 cup) tube pan (about 2/3 cups batter).  Dollop 8 rounded teaspoonfuls strawberry glaze over batter, and swirl with wooden skewer.  Repeat procedure once, and top with remaining third of batter.