St. Louis Gooey Cake: A Delicious Dessert with a Rich History
Greetings my beautiful lovelies, it's Emmy. How are you? It's so good to see you and welcome back today. I'm gonna be making St. Louis Gooey Cake, also known as Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, which is a recipe that dates from the 1930s. And it is said that it was made by a German-American baker who switched the proportions of butter and flour, ended up with a cake that was very dense and ooey and gooey, but did not want to throw it away. This was during the time of the Great Depression after all.
He decided to sell it; it became a seller; and ba, ba, ba-room! We have the St. Louis gooey, Ooey Gooey Butter Cake. From my understanding, the original recipe actually had some yeast in it. It was like a yeasted crust with a gooey top, but most people make it using store-bought cake mix, so that's what I'm going to use today. And... let's go ahead and make this!
So in a large bowl, we're going to dump in one box of cake mix. I'm using a yellow butter cake. Now that I just dumped this in here, it reminds me that I recently made cookies out of cake mix -- so, so easy. So, one box into there and now I'm gonna add one egg -- oops, not the shell just the egg -- and one stick of melted butter. Mm, mm, mm, mm, yum yum yum.
So, put the beaters in the wha-wha-wha... Whoo, whoo, whoo. Okay, that's it. I'm gonna use this pan -- this is actually the pan I cooked my Detroit pizza in. I think it's just gonna be just fine. We're gonna spray this up; Add this mixture to our pan; Make sure we get it in every spot; Press the dough up the sides a bit. Ooey, gooey, gooey, gooey, ooey gooey, gooey, gooey. St. Louis, Missouri, by the way, forgot to say where this is from exactly.
There's the base -- set that aside for a moment. We're gonna use the same bowl we used to make the crust. One eight-ounce package of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of butter, softened. Beat until smooth and creamy. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and mix well. Now let's get started!
The next step is to add 2 cups of sugar to the batter. Mix well until combined. Then we're gonna add our cake mix -- 2 boxes of yellow cake mix. Mix until just combined, don't overmix! We don't want a tough cake.
Now that we have our wet and dry ingredients mixed together, let's add our eggs. Beat until just combined. Don't overbeat the batter or it will be tough. Now it's time to pour in 2 sticks of melted butter -- make sure they're completely melted, so you don't see any white streaks.
Mix everything together until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and give everything one last mix until smooth and creamy. Pour our batter into a greased and floured 9x13-inch baking dish. We've got a beautiful St. Louis Gooey Cake!
Pouring it into the pan is quite messy, but don't worry if you get some on your hands or clothes, it's just butter! Now that we have everything in place, let's pop this baby into a preheated oven at 350°F for about 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. It will be done when the edges are golden brown and the center is set.
While our cake is baking, I want to share some interesting facts about St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake. Did you know that it's one of the oldest recipes in St. Louis? The original recipe dates back to 1932 and was created by a baker who wanted to create a dessert that would make people happy. She combined two boxes of yellow cake mix with eggs, butter, sugar, and vanilla extract.
When we first came out of the oven, I had to let it cool for a bit before slicing. But as soon as I sliced into it, the ooey gooey goodness was just begging to be dug in. Here's the first slice... It adakimasu! That's pretty ooey and gooey!
The texture is not soggy, in my opinion; I don't feel like it's sticky or stretchy. It's just soft and warm. Not quite as soft as a lava cake but a bit like an underdone cake. The flavor is lovely; it reminds me of brown butter. It has this really nice and nutty flavor to it, but tons of butter, a little bit of vanilla, but mostly I taste butter.
Let's try the edge piece here because on brownies, I love an edge piece. Mm, um-hmm. And here too, it's kind of similar to a brownie particularly the edge piece. It's a little bit chewier, a little bit firmer yet, it remains kind of soft and gooey on the top.
This is a very sweet dessert. And so I think a little goes a long way. Now that I think about it, I think it would be interesting to try this with a devil's food cake mix. I think you'd get something very similar to brownies because we are adding three eggs and two sticks of butter which are found in brownies anyways, so yeah.
And this was a good dessert. It has all the kind of flavor components of a yellow cake but the texture is much more brownie-like and warm out of the oven is just so comforting. Mm-Hmm. It makes me think of a dollop of ice cream on top of this. But I think that would just put this over the top because this is so very sweet, but it's delicious.
And you've got a lot of it. It's actually very similar to a Blondie but not quite as dense as a Blondie or a brownie. It's still kind of got a cakiness but it's not a fluffy cakiness; it's more of an ooey gooey cakiness.
All right, all my lovelies, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you enjoyed that one. I hope you learned something. Please share this video with your friends. Follow me on social media, like this video, subscribe and I shall see you in the next one. Toode-oo, take care. Bye.
The final slice... It was almost as if it had a second life in this pan! Now I want to make a few more St. Louis Gooey Cakes because I just know that they will turn out perfect. And maybe, just maybe, we can add a dollop of ice cream on top for good measure.
This recipe is very easy and simple to make. Just mix all the ingredients together and pour them into a greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Don't worry if you get some on your hands or clothes because it's just butter!
I have another idea now that I think about it, this St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake would be perfect for a brunch party or gathering. Serve with a side of fresh fruit and whipped cream and it will be the star of the show.