Butter and flour a 9x5” loaf pan.

Pre-heat oven to 325F.

Cut the butter into cubes and remove from the fridge 30 minutes before making the recipe. You don’t want the butter to be too soft, you want it to be chilled, on its way to room temperature.

If you have a Oster Hand Mixer with HEATSOFT technology, you don’t need to remove the butter from the fridge 30 minutes prior.

Start creaming butter with the mixer, on medium speed, and start raising the speed slowly while creaming the butter.

Cream the butter until very fluffy, for about 2 minutes.

Slowly add the sugar in. To do this, add about 1 tablespoon of sugar at a time, and wait for the sugar to be incorporated before adding more sugar in. Scrape the bowl if necessary.

Cream sugar and butter for about 5-6 more minutes on medium-high speed. You want the mixture to be creamy and fluffy.

Add eggs to the mixture one at a time, waiting for the egg to be incorporated before adding the next one.

Cream mixture on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes, scraping in between.

Add vanilla and mix to combine.

Sift flour and salt together.

Add half of the sifted flour mixture to the batter. Fold slowly with a spatula.

Add the other half, and fold to combine.

Don’t overmix the batter.

Pour batter onto prepared pan.

I added some blackberries to my batter, but I will leave this up to you. If you add blackberries to your cake batter, first pour 1/3 of the cake on the bottom of the pan, place a few blackberries over the top. Top with another 1/3 of cake and place a few more blackberries on top. Then top with the rest of the batter. Don’t use too many blackberries, though, I just added about 8.

Use a spatula to smooth the top.

Bake on the middle rack in the oven for about 1 hour. Rotate the cake midway. You might also need to cover your cake with aluminum foil if it’s browning too fast, but not baking on the inside.

Use a toothpick to confirm the cake is baked, if it comes out clean, your cake is done. Or simply touch the top of the cake very gently with your finger. If cake springs back, it’s because it’s done baking.

Remove from the oven. Let it cool for 15 minutes.

Flip onto a cooling rack. Let it cool down completely.

You can simply serve the cake like this at this point, or make the Blackberry Cream Cheese Frosting for the filling, and the Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting for the top.

To make the blackberry puree you want to puree a handful of blackberries, about 2 ounces, in a blender cup. Drain the blackberry puree to remove seeds. Set aside.

If using the Oster Hand Mixer with HEATSOFT technology, you don’t have to let your butter and cream cheese come to room temperature before making this.

Otherwise, make sure your cream cheese and butter are at room temperature.

Start creaming the cream cheese and butter for a few minutes at medium high speed for 3 minutes, until fluffy and creamy.

Sift powdered sugar.

Add sifted powdered sugar to the cream cheese and butter, mix on low until combined.

Raise speed and cream until fluffy, another minute.

Add blackberry puree.

Mix on low until combined.

If mixture seems too runny, add some more sifted powdered sugar until you achieve the desired consistency.

If using the Oster Hand Mixer with HEATSOFT technology, you don’t have to let your butter and cream cheese come to room temperature before making this.

Otherwise, make sure your cream cheese and butter are at room temperature.

Start creaming the cream cheese and butter for a few minutes at medium high speed for 3 minutes, until fluffy and creamy.

Sift powdered sugar, and cocoa powder together.

Add sifted powdered sugar and cocoa powder to the cream cheese and butter, mix on low until combined.

Raise speed and cream until fluffy, another minute.

Add vanilla and mix to combine.

Cut cooled cake in half horizontally.

Spread some of the blackberry cream cheese filling.

Top with the other cake.

Top with the chocolate frosting.

Let cake chill for 30 minutes or so before serving, so the frosting has a chance to set.

Served with more berries on top.

Cake will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Unfrosted pound cake can be kept on top of the counter, in an air tight contained for up to 3 days.