I have never made (or even tasted) a real St. Louis gooey cake. The closest I've come is making Deb Perlman's Gooey Cinnamon Cake, which is a version of the dessert with a cookie base. When I saw Shauna Sever's recipe for "Real Deal St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake" in Midwest Made, I decided it was time for me to finally tackle a gooey cake.
This cake has a base of yeasted coffeecake dough that must be made in the mixer with a paddle attachment; Shauna says because it is very loose, and you would need to add too much flour if you tried knead it by hand. To make the dough, you dissolve instant yeast in warm milk; whisk in melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest; and add flour and salt. You mix the dough until it is shiny, or what Shauna calls a "loose dough-batter hybrid." My dough was loose and runny and I scraped it into an oiled bowl to let it rise until doubled.
After the dough had risen, I scraped it into a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan. (The recipe says to use a glass pan so that you can assess the color of the bottom of the cake to determine when it's done, but the cookbook photo shows a cake in a metal pan -- so that what I used because I always prefer using a pan with perfectly square corners.) Then I made a topping by mixing room temperature butter with softened cream cheese, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, corn syrup, egg, and flour. I spread the topping over the dough base and baked the cake until puffed and golden.
I let the cake cool completely before taking it out of the pan, slicing it, and sprinkling it with powdered sugar. I was gratified to see that there was an actual gooey layer in the middle of the cake. If I didn't know that this was a gooey cake, I would think that the cake was underbaked from looking at it. But it definitely did not taste undercooked. The texture of the gooey layer reminded me of the consistency of almond croissant filling. This cake was quite sweet, but I liked it a lot. I'm not sure if it was worth the effort of making a yeasted base, but this cake is one that I will remember.
Recipe: "Real Deal St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake" from Midwest Made by Shauna Sever.
This cake has a base of yeasted coffeecake dough that must be made in the mixer with a paddle attachment; Shauna says because it is very loose, and you would need to add too much flour if you tried knead it by hand. To make the dough, you dissolve instant yeast in warm milk; whisk in melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest; and add flour and salt. You mix the dough until it is shiny, or what Shauna calls a "loose dough-batter hybrid." My dough was loose and runny and I scraped it into an oiled bowl to let it rise until doubled.
After the dough had risen, I scraped it into a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan. (The recipe says to use a glass pan so that you can assess the color of the bottom of the cake to determine when it's done, but the cookbook photo shows a cake in a metal pan -- so that what I used because I always prefer using a pan with perfectly square corners.) Then I made a topping by mixing room temperature butter with softened cream cheese, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, corn syrup, egg, and flour. I spread the topping over the dough base and baked the cake until puffed and golden.
Recipe: "Real Deal St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake" from Midwest Made by Shauna Sever.
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