The Gooey butter cake is a type of cake traditionally produced in St. Louis, Missouri.
It’s a flat and dense cake with flour, butter, sugar, and eggs, typically about 0.4 inches high and dusted with powdered sugar, generally served as a type of “coffee cake” rather than a dessert cake.
There are two distinct variations of the cake: the original St. Louis with MO Bakers’ gooey butter (the recipe that follows, short for Missouri, the state of St. Louis) and a variant of cream cheese and a ready-to-use yellow cake mix.
The original St. Louis, MO Bakers is believed to have originated in the 1930s at John Hoffman’s bakery.
There are different versions of the cake’s creation.
The first recounts that the cake was first made by accident by a German-American baker who was trying to prepare a regular cake batter but inverted the proportions of butter and flour.
Another story tells that there were two types of “butter smears” used in Hoffman’s bakery: a sticky butter and a deep butter (gooey butter and deep butter).
The sticky butter was used as an adhesive for preparations like Danish rolls and stollen. It was spread on the surface, then coconut, hazelnuts, peanuts, etc., were added.
A new baker confused the butter. The mistake was only discovered afterward, and instead of throwing them away, Hoffman decided to bake them anyway.
This baking error occurred during the Great Depression, meaning that ingredient supplies for baking were scarce.
The new cake sold so well that Hoffman continued to bake it and sell it, and soon other bakers around St. Louis did too.
N.B. The “Mo Bakers” recipe is easier to prepare at home and widely used even outside St. Louis, but it is not the “historically authentic” version with the original leavened dough and dense jelly topping.
Gooey butter cake is now widely available even outside the St. Louis area because Walmart marketed a version called “Paula Deen Baked Goods Original Gooey Butter Cake.”
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4People
- Cooking methods: Stove, Oven
- Cuisine: American
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 3 oz milk
- 8 oz butter
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 3 tablespoons corn syrup
- 1 vanilla bean
- to taste salt
Tools
- 1 Baking Pan 8.7 inches
Steps
Heat the milk (1.5 oz), add the baking powder.
Mix the melted butter (3 oz) with the sugar (0.2 cups), the salt, and the egg (1).
Add the flour (1.7 cups) in three times alternating with the milk mixture in two times.
Spread in the 8.7-inch baking pan, cover, and let rest for 2 hours.
Combine the butter (5 oz) with the sugar (0.8 cups), a pinch of salt, and the corn syrup. Add the vanilla, the other egg, the milk (1.5 oz), and the flour (1.2 cups), mix and spread over the cake.
Bake in the oven at 356°F for 30 minutes.
Once cool, dust with powdered sugar.
If I had to choose a song that represents the recipe, I would choose, “St. Louis Blues” a 1914 musical piece written by the American musician W. C. Handy and I would choose it performed by Bessie Smith, the most popular and talented blues and jazz singer of the twenties and thirties.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
What is the cheese version of the Gooey butter cake?
The sticky butter cake The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission includes a recipe with cream cheese and the commercial variant of yellow cake on its website, calling it “one of St. Louis’s quirky and popular foods.”
The recipe features a lower layer of butter and yellow cake mix and an upper layer based on eggs, cream cheese, and, in one case, almond extract.
The creamy cheese variant of the gooey butter cake (also known as “Ooey Gooey butter cake“), although quite close to the original, is an approximation designed for easier home preparation.What is the recipe for the original version of the Gooey Butter Cake?
The Gooey Butter Cake originated in St. Louis in the 1930s, and the original version featured a yeast-leavened base similar to a brioche dough, with yeast.
This was the “original gooey butter cake.”
Over time, to simplify home preparation, it became more common to use a shortcrust or shortbread type base, without yeast, and this is the modern version but still typical of the area.
In St. Louis, you will find both versions, but the one without yeast is now the most widespread in local bakeries and supermarkets.
🍰 Gooey Butter Cake – classic version (for 4 people)
🧾 Ingredients
Base:
• All-purpose flour → 0.7 cups
• Melted butter (unsalted) → 2 oz
• Granulated sugar → 0.2 cups
• 1 medium egg → 1
• Vanilla extract → 1/2 teaspoon
“Gooey” layer:
• Cream cheese → 4 oz (at room temperature)
• Powdered sugar → 1.3–1.5 cups (adjust based on desired sweetness)
• Eggs → 2 small
• Vanilla extract → 1/2 teaspoon
• (Optional) a pinch of salt → 1 pinch
To serve:
• Powdered sugar to sprinkle on top when cool → to taste
👩🍳 Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 347 °F. Lightly grease a round 8–9 inches baking pan or line it with parchment paper.
2. Prepare the base:
In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, and melted butter.
Add the egg and vanilla, and mix until you get a homogeneous dough.
Press the dough with the back of a spoon onto the bottom of the pan to form the base.
3. Prepare the gooey layer:
In a large bowl, work the soft cream cheese with powdered sugar, eggs, and vanilla until you get a smooth cream without lumps.
4. Pour the layer over the base:
Evenly distribute the cream cheese over the base in the pan.
5. Bake:
Bake for around 35–45 minutes: the surface should be slightly golden but the center should remain soft and a bit sticky.
Do not overbake because the characteristic of this cake is the “gooey” center. [3]
6. Cool and serve:
Let it cool completely (better 1–2 hours) to slightly set the inner layer.
Before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
