St Louis Gooey Butter Cake
No need to drive to St. Louis when you’re craving St Louis Gooey Butter Cake – a flat, dense cake with gooey, buttery center topped with a touch of powdered sugar. Grab your fork and dig it!
The best part about traveling is being inspired in the kitchen when you return home.
Last month, my parents, brother, and I went on a road trip vacation to St. Louis with stops along the way in Indianapolis (which is apparently shut down on Sundays?) and Louisville.
I was in charge of researching places to eat and learned St. Louis is known for gooey butter cake, which is a flat, dense cake with a gooey, buttery center (hence the name).
I made Apple Butter Gooey Butter Cake last year, but research showed me I haven’t had a true gooey butter cake until I’ve had one from St. Louis.
We definitely found the best cake in St. Louis, and to this day I still keep thinking about it, which means only one thing – time to recreate it at home so I don’t have to drive another 10 hours to buy one.
I learned there are two different kinds of gooey butter cake – authentic St Louis gooey butter cake that uses yeast and one that uses cake mix (or a homemade version of cake mix).
I kept going back and forth between which type to make for my post.
After much research, I decided to stick with the yeast cake as it sounds like it was the original recipe before the recipe was adapted for modern times.
Then came my next decision – do I leave it as traditional as possible or do I add other flavors such as chocolate or lemon?
Since I preferred traditional during my travels, I stayed traditional. The other cakes may come later in the future.
If I had to describe what traditional tastes like, I would say a combination of vanilla and butter, like a heavenly slice of yellow cake but with a gooey texture, almost as if it was slightly underbaked.
Then you dust it with a small shower of powdered sugar with an extra touch of sweetness, which means you don’t have to spend extra time (or ingredients) making a frosting for it.
Ready to dig in yet?
Since St. Louis is famous for gooey butter cake, we had to put it on our list to try.
First up was Park Avenue Coffee where they make over 70 flavors with 12 flavors in rotation every day.
It was much thinner than I expected, but still delicious nonetheless. Believe it or not, my favorite was the traditional one with chocolate as a close second. The raspberry was my dad’s favorite.
The second place we tried was Gooey Louie and was not what I expected.
I thought I could walk in and grab a slice, but turns out they only sell whole cakes, which worked out for the four of us.
The minute I picked up a box, I knew I was in for a treat because it was still warm. The only thing better than a gooey butter cake is a warm gooey butter cake.
The guy explained to me they didn’t have the proper permit to allow us to eat there, so we took it to a parking lot and dug right into the box.
I’m not kidding when I say that was probably the best thing we ate all trip.
Although you can’t go wrong with either place, if you’re in St. Louis and can only pick one, go with Gooey Louie first.
The yeast layer is a little unusual for a cake recipe, but it does make a tender crumb.
It also means you need to let the dough rise for 2 hours before finishing the cake, so you need to plan ahead of time.
It’ll be worth it though because once you finish baking and take that first bite, you’ll instantly forget how long you had to wait.
Want to see more travel photos? I’m (slowly) adding them to my @citylifeadventures Instagram account. Be sure to follow along!
St Louis Gooey Butter Cake
Ingredients
Dough Layer
- 2 tablespoons lukewarm milk, about 100 degrees F.
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
Filling Layer
- 7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons milk
- Powdered sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
For the dough layer
- Lightly grease an 8x8 square pan.
- In a small bowl, add lukewarm milk. Sprinkle yeast evenly on top. Let sit for 5 minutes then stir to dissolve.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and salt until light and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the egg for another minute. Scrape down the bowl.
- On low speed add the flour mixture alternating with the milk, adding the flour in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions (begin and end with dry ingredients). After everything has been incorporated, increase the speed to medium-low and beat for 3 minutes or until dough is smooth and slightly elastic.
- With lightly floured hands, press and stretch the dough into the pan. If the dough resists, allow dough to rest for 15 minutes. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise for 2 hours.
For the filling layer
- When the dough is done rising, preheat oven to 350F.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour and cornstarch. Stir in the salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and corn syrup until light and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla for another minute. Add the flour mixture alternating with the milk, adding the flour in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions (begin and end with dry ingredients).
- Spread filling on top of dough. Bake 20- 25 minutes until top is crisp and golden brown (toothpick may still have some batter on it when inserted in the center). Let cake cool completely. Right before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
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So glad to learn about gooey butter cake. I’ve never tried any of those and this recipe is on my list to make this Summer.
Thank You For posting the REALY recipe. the other one that uses cake mix also uses CREAM CHEESE. NO Cream Cheese in GOOEY BUTTER CAKE, I am from St. Louis, now live in SanDiego. I love this recipe thank You for posting it
Yes, I’ve seen the cream cheese variation before. I wanted to stick as close to the original as possible in honor of my St. Louis vacation.
OMIGOSH I’ve never seen a gooey cake recipe that doesn’t use cake mix, I love that this doesn’t! YES!
Do I have to refrigerate if I make it previous day of a function?
No, but make sure you cover it so it stays fresh.
Do I have to punch down the dough after it rises?
No, you don’t.
This is the breakfast of my childhood. My dad grew up in St. Louis, and every year when we visited my grandmother, we always got gooey butter cake for breakfast. The best place to still get it is Federhofer’s. Thanks for sharing the recipe. My mother always tried to recreate it but never matched the original.
Thanks for sharing your story! Let me know if you try the cake!
This is a great post and your recipe looks to be a good one. I will definitely test it and add the recipe to my collection of buttercake recipes. That said, for the sake of accuracy, I need to point out one thing about buttercake from St. Louis and Philadelphia. Ignore your computer’s spell check, this particular dessert is one word…”BUTTERCAKE”. Happy baking and if you ever visit the Louisville area, stop at one of the bakeries there and try a butter kuchen (two words :) ). It’s very similar to buttercake, but is made in round pans and has a thicker cake base.
Interesting. I don’t see anywhere where it says buttercake. Do you have a source for this? I’m intrigued and want to read more!
My in-laws are from St. Louis. NOW I can become the favorite daughter-in-law!! Thank you!!????????????
Just made this, turned out amazing! One of the best I have tasted!
Wonderful! Happy to hear that.
Is there a substitute for corn syrup that I could use for this recipe? I don’t have any corn syrup at hand, but want to make this tonight! Looks amazing.
I haven’t tried it with a substitute, but you can use agave, a mild-flavored honey, or make your own corn syrup (such as https://www.thekitchn.com/pantry-staples-diy-cane-sugar-131934)
Can I use an 9×9 pan or a pie pan or a different size pan instead of 8×8? I don’t have an 8×8.
My concern with the 9×9 pan is there may not be enough batter. The cake isn’t super thick to make up for that.
I figured out that a 9” round pan has the same volume as an 8×8. Problem solved!
I actually have a question about the yeast…does the recipe require the yeast to be fast-acting? Trying to decide which yeast to use and if it will change the rise time of the dough layer?
Oh good! I’m glad the pan size worked out. The recipe calls for active dry yeast, which is not the same as fast acting. I believe if you used fast acting, you don’t need to dissolve in milk and can probably cut back on the rise time. However, I don’t know that answer since I never tried it with fast-acting.
Yep, Gooey Butter cake is the best, but you should also try toasted ravioli (we have a really interesting Italian enclave called the hill). St. Louis style pizza is a really thin, crisp crust with provel cheese (Though Imo’s and Cecil Whitacre’s are like our Dominos, go local for the best. I love Faracci’s and Pirone’s because I’m north county STL), We also love pork steaks. Those are great wherever you get them. They are a strange cut of pork we grill and usually throw into a crock pot to simmer. YUM.
I’ll keep those in mind next time I visit!
Could you elaborate on the ‘strange cut’ of pork? I’d love to try this method and it would be great to know what cut to buy. Any recipes for sauce?
Pork steaks are a pork shoulder or Boston butt cut into ~3/4 inch steaks.
I am from St. Louis. This is so close to what I ate all my life. Thank you for nor making it with cream cheese or a cake mix! Those recipes are not authentic.
Glad you approve!
Grew up on gooey buttercake. Whenever I’m passing through St. Louis, I stop at Dierbergs and buy at least four. You can freeze them. I’m having my last one for breakfast tomorrow morning. BTW, the best pizza in St. Louis is at Rigazzi’s on The Hill.
I’ll have to check those places out if I’m ever back in St. Louis! Thank you.
What would cause the dough layer not to rise ? Everything else was perfect but the bottom layer was doughy and a bit salty ? Should there be baking powder ?
Hmm it sounds like it might be a yeast issue. Maybe your yeast expired. Maybe your ingredients were too hot or too cold (too hot and the yeast dies. Too cold and the yeast won’t activate). There is no need for baking powder.
I’m wondering if I mixed the dough too much because the dough didn’t really rise and I let it sit for 2 hours . But I’ll check the yeast date – thanks !
It’s possible. Yeast can be really finicky.
Do I use light or golden cornsyrup. I have both and want to me exact as possible! Also, I live in San DIego and right now our weather is on the warmer side with some humidity (whcih is unusual). Do i need to account for the yeast process due to the weather? Thanks for your input and time! Very excited to try this recipe today! :)
I used light corn syrup. Not sure about the yeast and weather. You’ll have to do some research to see if you need to adjust.
Thank you for prompt reply!