History
The cake is a St. Louis invention, most often dated to a German-American bakery in the 1930s where a baker reportedly reversed the proportions of butter and flour by mistake. Rather than throw it out, the bakery sold the dense, gooey result, and it caught on across the city's German bakeries. Today every St. Louis bakery makes a version, some with cream cheese and powdered sugar, others, like Federhofer's, without either, and Park Avenue Coffee turns out more than 70 flavours.
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Common allergens: Gluten, Egg, Dairy
Make it at home
Ingredients
- For the base: 1 box yellow cake mix
- 115g butter, melted
- 1 large egg
- For the topping: 225g cream cheese, softened
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 115g butter, melted
- 450g powdered sugar, plus extra to dust
Method
- Heat the oven to 175C and grease a 23cm by 33cm baking dish.
- Mix the cake mix, melted butter and one egg into a stiff dough and press it into the dish as the base.
- Beat the cream cheese until smooth, then beat in the two eggs and vanilla.
- Add the melted butter, then the powdered sugar, beating to a smooth batter, and pour over the base.
- Bake 40 to 45 minutes until the edges are set but the centre still jiggles. Cool, dust with powdered sugar and cut into squares.
Tip from the editors. Pull it while the centre still wobbles; it firms as it cools and that is what keeps it gooey.
Where to eat gooey butter cake
Gooey butter cake in St. Louis
Park Avenue Coffee ★ 4.0
Park Avenue Coffee roasts its own beans and pours them with more than 70 varieties of gooey butter cake, the St. Louis dessert it is best known for here.
BeansColombia, Brazil, Ethiopia
BrewsEspresso, Filter, Whole bean retail
TipPair a roast with the Mom's Traditional gooey butter cake. The Lafayette Square original is the most charming branch.
Federhofer's Bakery ★ 4.1
Federhofer's Bakery (Bakery) in St Louis: Its gooey butter is a denser, old-school style than the cream-cheese versions. Come early for the freshest cases.
Why locals goA suburban Affton bakery off the tourist map, Federhofer's makes a distinctive gooey butter cake without cream cheese or powdered sugar that locals adore.
TipIts gooey butter is a denser, old-school style than the cream-cheese versions. Come early for the freshest cases.
Missouri Baking Company ★ 4.4
A family-run Italian-American bakery on The Hill, Missouri Baking Company is famous for cookies by the pound and a dense, almond-paste gooey butter cake.
Worth the queueAlmond-paste gooey butter cake and cookies
TipIt is cash-and-pickup with no online ordering; buy cookies by weight. Weekend mornings see a line of Hill regulars.
More cities are in research. Want gooey butter cake covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.