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This Neapolitan Pound Cake is ice cream turned into cake. Now you don’t have to choose between strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla pound cake.

Neapolitan pound cake

Tastes certainly do change over the years.

When I was a kid going out to the ice cream parlor meant that I was going to get Bubble Gum Ice Cream.

I mostly just wanted the gum.

The frozen solid gum that I would cover in my saliva and then spit out into a napkin.

And when I was done with my treasure hunt for gum, I would wrap it up in the napkin to eat later.

Of course by the time I got it home to eat, the paper napkin had stuck to all the gum.

So there I was eating licked, paper covered gum balls.

Mmm. Yummy.

And eat them I would, paper and all.

Of course logic would have told me to buy a bag of gumballs and then get a different ice cream flavor.

But what is logic to a little kid. 

Neapolitan Pound Cake

Now back in those days they didn’t offer Bubble Gum Ice Cream at the store.

So when my mom brought home ice cream she usually brought home Neapolitan.

More bang for your buck.

Not only were you getting ice cream, but you were getting vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate all rolled into one.

Strawberry was my favorite so my mother could always tell when I was sneaking ice cream as there was a large dent in just the strawberry section.

A cleaver six year old I was not. 🙂

But now that I am older I prefer many, many ice cream flavors over Neapolitan, but I still like the concept.

So while strolling through the vast amount of Southern cookbooks I have, I found a recipe for pound cake.

Now there are a lot of recipes for pound cake, but this was the kind that you started with a cold oven.

I have never used that method and wanted to give it a try.

Not sure if it is the batter or the cooking method, but this makes for one really dense pound cake.

I replaced most of the cream cheese with mascarpone cheese, as I wanted to take the tang away as I was using other flavors.

You don’t have to use the pink food coloring for the strawberry batter, but it’s nice for effect and all. 

I hope those of you celebrating it had a  nice Thanksgiving!

We are having a pretty low key one.

Complete with Neapolitan Pound Cake Sundaes.

To do that, you just top a slice of pound cake with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and a little heated up strawberry jam.

Good stuff.

P.S. It’s a great day to buy my cookbook Holy Sweet!

Neapolitan Pound Cake

Want more recipes like this? Try these:

Neapolitan Swirl Cupcakes

Salted Caramel Pound Cake

Strawberries and Cream Bundt Cake

Key Lime Soda Pound Cake

Lemon Mascarpone Pound Cake

Big Red Soda Vanilla Pound Cake

Neapolitan pound cake

Neapolitan Pound Cake

Ingredients

  • 3 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 5 oz, mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract, divided
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 3 cups cake flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 6 TBSP strawberry jam
  • 3 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 4-5 drops neon pink food coloring

Instructions

  1. Spray a 16-x-4-x-4 ½ -inch loaf pan with baking spray. Set aside. DO NOT preheat oven.
  2. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or a bowl and a hand mixer) on medium-high speed, cream together cheeses and butter.
  3. Add 2 tsp vanilla and beat for 30 seconds.
  4. In a medium bowl sift together the granulated and powdered sugars.
  5. While beating add two of the eggs.
  6. Scrap down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
  7. Add 1 cup sugar mixture.
  8. Beat until combined.
  9. Add 1 cup flour plus pinch of salt.
  10. Beat until combined.
  11. Repeat until all of the eggs, sugars, and flour are used.
  12. Divide the batter equally between three bowls.
  13. In one bowl combine the batter with 6 TBSP strawberry jam and the drops of pink food coloring.
  14. In another bowl combine the batter with the unsweetened cocoa powder.
  15. And the third bowl combine the remaining 1 tsp vanilla extract to the batter.
  16. Using three disposable piping bags (or just scoop with a spoon if you don’t have) fill each one with a different batter.
  17. Using a random pattern, just pipe a little vanilla, then strawberry, then chocolate batter into the prepared pan.
  18. Keep doing this until all of the batter has been used.
  19. Take a butter knife or wooden skewer and mix the batter together to form swirls in the batter.
  20. Place in oven.
  21. Turn oven on to 295F.
  22. Bake for 2 hours.

Notes

Adapted from Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House Cookbook

Neapolitan Pound Cake

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Comments

  1. I used to love bubble gum ice cream too 😀 Oh and Neapolitan?? I always ate the chocolate and vanilla parts first, leaving the strawberry, haha.

    Such a fabulous pound cake variety!

    Reply

  2. I hated the bubblegum ice cream and I’m not crazy about neapolitan ice cream, but this cake I am in love with! Especially when you topped it with strawberries and chocolate!! Definitely over the top with this one!

    Reply

  4. I have to say that ice cream is just not something that I am tempted by but one thing that I am is pound cake. This cake is so cute that I am going to try it. I have always wanted Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House Cookbook. I have the Blue Willows in Social Circle, Georgia. Have you ever been there? How is the football pool going?

    Reply

  6. As I am from AZ also, I can only imagine the bubble gum ice cream was from Swensen’s. I did the exact same thing.

    Thanks for the fun cake recipe.

    Reply

  10. Yes Yes Yes! This looks like a great pound cake recipe and I love the color in the pictures, looks just like the same tones of brown, white and pink as the ice cream.

    I recently catered a wedding and made Neopolitan Napoleans (trying saying that fast) and it made me remember how much I enjoy the flavor combo. This recipe is a keeper for sure.

    Reply

  12. Oh yum! I love neapolitan everything! Don’t know if it has more to do with the color combo or the fact that I am greedy and want all the flavors. Like you, my favorite is the strawberry, and if I am digging out of the container I will choose one flavor at a time.

    Reply

  13. That is indeed an unusual thing to start with a cold oven……I like Neopolitan Ice-cream too, but I always made a dent in the chocolate….

    Reply

  14. Glad you had a nice Thanksgiving. This cale looks delicious – we call this marble cake because of the marbling of the colours (although if you stuck a few gum balls in there you could say it had real marbles!).

    Reply

  16. What is it with bubble gum ice cream? I ate it too, and now my kid does (despite my pleading). Oh well, there’s always Neapolitan waiting to be discovered–or creative pound cakes.

    Reply

  17. I am not a big fan of Neapolitan ice cream any more (mostly because of cheap artificial strawberry flavors), but that pound cake looks delicious!

    Reply

  18. What a great idea – thanks for posting this! Since I always make my own birthday cake (by choice!) this might be it!

    I wonder how it would turn out with a fourth flavor – RUM! Instant Spumoni!

    Reply

  19. Hey, I liked bubble gum ice cream from the parlor too, but, uh, it didn’t come with bubble gum pieces (and I’m glad!!!). Right now I’m glad I don’t see it anymore, as it makes me shudder to think what they flavored it with…
    That pic of the neapolitan sundae over the neapolitan cake is killing me!! 🙂

    Reply

  21. Fabulous idea for a cake! I felt EXACTLY the same way about bubble gum ice cream. My mom didn’t let us have gum, so I felt like I was somehow cheating the system by getting it…even thought the gum was never very satisfying to chew!

    Reply

  25. That looks really cool. You’re welcome to the strawberry part of the ice cream–I only like the chocolate and vanilla parts. =)

    Reply

  26. I remember doing the same thing with bubblegum ice cream. My boys have all done the same thing too. Must be a childhood rite of passage. 😉

    I always only liked the strawberry part of Neapolitan too. But I must say that I think I could eat all the flavors in this bread. Yum!

    Reply

  28. Neapolitan ice cream was a standard in my house – everyone could have their favorite flavor in one box! I love the pound cake sundae idea. Everything’s better with ice cream 🙂

    Reply

  29. Fun recipe and it is very dense looking which I love. I’ve never tried anything in a cold oven (except a fab recipe for popovers someone gave me years ago) and would love to give this a try. (I liked neapolitan ice cream a lot- also served it at all my kids’ birthday parties. Kind of covers all bases.)

    Reply

  33. I’ve made one of the cold-oven pound cakes before, and I agree, it was dense as all get out.

    I love the neopolitan idea. I’ll have to look for an opportunity to try it!

    Reply

  35. Whoa, psychedelic! It’s not such a leap from marble to neapolitan, but still I would never have thought of it. Thanks for sharing this one! I’ve added it to my to-make pile.

    Reply

  36. I love mascarpone cheese and haven’t tried too many recipes baking with it. Can’t wait to try this! Thanks for the great ideas and wonderful pictures.

    Reply

  37. I found this sort of bubblegum ice cream recently on holiday in Germany – its just as delicious as you describe! They also had popping candy flavour ice cream, which was even better.
    This cake is so pretty – I love it 😀

    Reply

  38. Oh, I have Mrs. Wilkes’ cookbook. Now I’m going to have to go find the pound cake recipe. I love the neapolitan take on this cake… the colors are so festive (and who doesn’t like Neapolitan?!)

    Reply

  40. I wish you were my extra sister.

    My Dad would buy neopolitan when we were growing up too. Problem was, nobody liked the strawberry flavor and he wouldn’t buy a new gallon of ice cream until we finished the last bit.

    The chocolate would be gone in an instant. My sister would polish off the vanilla. Then the strawberry would sit there until someone got really desperate.

    Sigh. We needed you back then.

    Reply

  46. We had an ice cream parlor next door to our pediatrician and would get to go when we went to the doctor. I always got gummi bear or bubble gum.

    My Papa would get neopolitan ice cream as well…and I was totally a strawberry girl. If there wasn’t any I would have vanilla…chocolate I did not like! Still don’t care for chocolate ice cream.

    Reply

  48. What is it with kids and bubble gum ice cream? I had 2 favorites: bubble gum and cotton candy! (At this point, I’m not sure which one sounds less appetizing!) Anyway, my dad always bought Neopolitan ice cream…chocolate was my fav, vanilla was my dad’s, and since no one else really ate ice cream in the house, the strawberry was always the last to go. 🙂

    Your pound cake is gorgeous!

    Reply

  50. I loved bubble gum anything & spent a large part of my childhood blowing bubbles at everyone…clever I was not either and got it caught in my hair often. Cut to now, my kids love bubblegum anything, and would give an arm & a leg for this gorgeous cake. Well done…and I do love reading your stories!!

    Reply

  51. This looks awesome! My kids always go for bubblegum ice cream before anything else too! It’s strange how that evil blue food colouring draws them in!
    I will definatley be giving this cake a try!

    Reply

  52. When my kids were little “Neopolitan” was too much of a mouthful to pronounce, so in our house it’s Napolean ice cream. I think I’ve found my Waterloo with this pound cake!

    Reply

  54. I love how pretty those colors look together, Pea.
    When I was single, I used to get so mad at my brother over Neapolitan ice cream – my dad’d always bring some home, but my brother would finish the chocolate and vanilla parts in no minute, leaving just the strawberry layer behind. 😀

    Reply

  57. This looks delicious! And SO pretty!! I used to be obsessed with bubble gum ice cream when I was a kid too. So weird you can actually buy it at the grocery store now!

    Reply

  58. I used to love Neopolitan Ice Cream…especially the strawberry. It was usually better than the vanilla or chocolate for some reason. Can’t say that I ever understoon the appeal of the bubble gum ice cream especially since it was usually blue as well 🙁

    This pound cake looks magnificent, especially as the sundae keeping with the Neopolitan flavors.

    Reply

  61. That is such a pretty poundcake…impressive. I used to love the bubble gum ice cream too. Kinda hard to figure out how to chew gum and eat ice cream at the same time, but it was worth it.

    Reply

  64. Never baked anything in a cold-start oven before. Or made Neapolitan pound cake either. Two firsts, when I attempt this recipe. I wonder if I will be tempted to eat the chocolate bits off the cake first 🙂

    Reply

  65. I just discovered your blog and I love it! Everything on here is creative enough for me to want to make it and traditional enough for my picky brother to want to eat it. =] Yum!

    Reply

  69. You know, I tried explaining the flavor of bubblegum lately. A very normal flavor that evokes an imagine when stated but I still could not explain the taste.

    I love the neopolitian color and flavors for this poundcake. What a wonderful treat with a scoop of ice cream, chocolate sauce and warmed strawberry jam. A dessert I would love to share with my own family =)

    Reply

  70. &*^% yes!!! I love this, Peabody. I have always loved the look and idea of Neapolitan better than the taste…but I sense that is about to change! You’ve brought it all together beautifully for me here.

    Reply

  72. Yummy! To this day my dad still buys 1 gallon containers of Neapolitan ice cream. When I visit I usually clear out the vanilla and chocolate and leave him the strawberry 🙂

    Reply

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