Gooey butter cake
Encyclopedia
Gooey butter cake is a type of cake
traditionally made in the U.S. city of St. Louis, Missouri
. It is generally served as a type of coffee cake
and not as a dessert cake. There are two distinct variants of the gooey butter. There is a bakers gooey butter and a cream cheese and yellow cake mix variant. It is believed to have originated in the 1930s.
The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission includes a recipe for the cake on its website, calling it "one of St. Louis' popular, quirky foods"; the recipe calls for a bottom layer of butter
and yellow cake, and a top layer made from eggs
, cream cheese
, and, in one case, almond
extract. The cake is dusted with confectioner's sugar before being served. The cake is best eaten soon after baking it. It should be served at room temperature or warm.
The cream cheese variant of the gooey butter cake recipe, while close enough to the original, is an approximation designed for easier preparation at home. Almost all bakeries in the greater St. Louis
area, including those at grocers Schnucks
and Dierbergs, use a slightly different recipe based on corn syrup, sugar and powdered eggs
-- no cake mix or cream cheese is involved .
A legend about the cake's origin is included in Saint Louis Days...Saint Louis Nights (ISBN 0-9638298-1-5), a cookbook published in the mid-1990s by the Junior League
of St. Louis. The cake was supposedly first made by accident in the 1930s by a St. Louis-area German American
baker who was trying to make regular cake batter but reversed the proportions of sugar and flour
.
John Hoffman was the owner of the bakery where the mistake was made. The real story is there are two types of butter "smears" used in a bakery. A gooey butter and a deep butter. The deep butter was used for deep butter coffee cakes. The gooey butter was used as an adhesive for things like danish rolls and stolens. The gooey butter was smeared across the surface, then the item was placed in coconut, peanuts, crumbs or whatever was desired so they would stick to the product.
John hired a new baker that was supposed to make deep butter cakes, but got the two butter smears mixed up. The mistake wasn't caught until after the cakes came out of the proof box
. Rather than throw them away, John went ahead and baked them up. They sold so well, John kept producing them and soon, so did the other bakers around St. Louis.
Ozenkoski's Bakery and the Panera Bread Company
(original name: St. Louis Bread Company) make danish
with a gooey butter filling.
Cake
Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet and enriched baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape...
traditionally made in the U.S. city of St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. It is generally served as a type of coffee cake
Coffee cake
The term coffee cake can refer to either of the following:* A class of cakes intended to be eaten alongside coffee. Under this definition, a coffee cake does not contain coffee. They are typically single layer cakes that may be square or rectangular like a Stollen or loaf-shaped rectangular cakes....
and not as a dessert cake. There are two distinct variants of the gooey butter. There is a bakers gooey butter and a cream cheese and yellow cake mix variant. It is believed to have originated in the 1930s.
The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission includes a recipe for the cake on its website, calling it "one of St. Louis' popular, quirky foods"; the recipe calls for a bottom layer of butter
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...
and yellow cake, and a top layer made from eggs
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
, cream cheese
Cream cheese
Cream cheese is a soft, mild-tasting, white cheese with a high fat content. Traditionally, it is made from unskimmed milk enriched with additional cream....
, and, in one case, almond
Almond
The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree...
extract. The cake is dusted with confectioner's sugar before being served. The cake is best eaten soon after baking it. It should be served at room temperature or warm.
The cream cheese variant of the gooey butter cake recipe, while close enough to the original, is an approximation designed for easier preparation at home. Almost all bakeries in the greater St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
area, including those at grocers Schnucks
Schnucks
Schnucks is a supermarket chain. Based in suburban St. Louis, the company was started in 1939 with the opening of a store in north St. Louis city and now operates 100 stores in five states throughout the midwest. Schnucks also runs stores under the Logli Supermarkets and Hilander Foods banners...
and Dierbergs, use a slightly different recipe based on corn syrup, sugar and powdered eggs
Powdered eggs
Powdered eggs are fully dehydrated eggs. They are made in a spray dryer in the same way that powdered milk is made. The major advantages of powdered eggs over fresh eggs are the price, reduced weight per volume of whole egg equivalent, and the shelf life...
-- no cake mix or cream cheese is involved .
A legend about the cake's origin is included in Saint Louis Days...Saint Louis Nights (ISBN 0-9638298-1-5), a cookbook published in the mid-1990s by the Junior League
Junior League
The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. is a non-profit organization of 292 Junior Leagues in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom and the United States. Junior Leagues are educational and charitable women's organizations aimed at improving their communities through volunteerism and...
of St. Louis. The cake was supposedly first made by accident in the 1930s by a St. Louis-area German American
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
baker who was trying to make regular cake batter but reversed the proportions of sugar and flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
.
John Hoffman was the owner of the bakery where the mistake was made. The real story is there are two types of butter "smears" used in a bakery. A gooey butter and a deep butter. The deep butter was used for deep butter coffee cakes. The gooey butter was used as an adhesive for things like danish rolls and stolens. The gooey butter was smeared across the surface, then the item was placed in coconut, peanuts, crumbs or whatever was desired so they would stick to the product.
John hired a new baker that was supposed to make deep butter cakes, but got the two butter smears mixed up. The mistake wasn't caught until after the cakes came out of the proof box
Proofing (baking technique)
Proofing , as the term is used by professional bakers, is the final dough-rise step before baking, and refers to a specific rest period within the more generalized process known as fermentation...
. Rather than throw them away, John went ahead and baked them up. They sold so well, John kept producing them and soon, so did the other bakers around St. Louis.
Ozenkoski's Bakery and the Panera Bread Company
Panera Bread
Panera Bread is a chain of bakery–café quick casual restaurants in the United States and Canada that sells breads, sandwiches, soups, salads, and other bakery items. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.-Corporate history:In 1993, Au Bon Pain Co...
(original name: St. Louis Bread Company) make danish
Danish pastry
Danish pastry is a sweet pastry which has become a specialty of Denmark and neighbouring Scandinavian countries and is popular throughout the industrialized world, although the form it takes can differ significantly from country to country...
with a gooey butter filling.
External links
- Recipe from scratch, from the Missouri Humanities CouncilMissouri Humanities CouncilThe Missouri Humanities Council is a non-profit, tax-exempt foundation promoting wide public engagement with history, literature, and other fields concerned with the human experience. The Council began operations in 1971 as the designated state affiliate of the National Endowment for the...
website (using vanillaVanillaVanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, Flat-leaved Vanilla . The word vanilla derives from the Spanish word "", little pod...
extract instead of almond)