Supposedly created in the 1930s when a now-forgotten St. Louis baker mixed the wrong ingredients for a cake but decided to bake it anyway, gooey butter cake is a low-rise pastry with a tender crust around the edge and a middle that is custard-soft and supersweet. Center cuts are dripping-moist; outside segments tend to be a balance of gooeyness and plain cake. A continuing passion in St. Louis (but nowhere else), gooey butter cake originally was simply the fixin’s for yellow cake with extra butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar, but city bakers have taken the idea and run with it. The Park Avenue Coffee Shop boasts seventy different flavors, about a dozen of which are made each day. Varieties include banana split, white chocolate raspberry, Amaretto, Butterfinger, and funky monkey. Gooey butter cake demands coffee; St. Louis Post-Dispatch food editor Judith Evans once described it as “the perfect Tupperware party food.”
Gooey Butter Cake
Adapted from St. Louis Days, St. Louis Nights, published by the Junior League, this recipe is attributed to Fred and Audrey Heimburger, whose now-shuttered bakery was known for its excellent gooey butter cake.
Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 stick butter, softened
Filling:
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup evaporated milk
¼ cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Oil an 8 × 8 × 1¾-inch baking pan. To make the crust, combine the flour and sugar. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling together. Pat this mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. If you are not making the filling right away, refrigerate the crust.
2. Prepare the filling by beating the sugar and butter until they form a light paste. Mix in the egg. Alternately add the flour and evaporated milk, mixing after each addition. Add the corn syrup and vanilla extract. Mix at medium speed until well-blended. Pour the batter into the crust-lined baking pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
3. Bake 40 minutes. The cake will test “not done” in the center, and it will remain gooey as it cools in the pan. Forks are required!
9 SERVINGS