Why It Works
- Incorporating a whole egg and an extra egg yolk into the batter adds moisture and richness to the cake.
- Brown sugar gives the topping its deep, butterscotch flavor, which is signature to gooey butter cake.
- Seasoning the topping with just the right amount of salt balances the sweetness of the dessert, preventing it from becoming cloying.
- Though unorthodox, a touch of nutmeg in the batter enhances the cake’s buttery flavor.
If you grew up in St. Louis, gooey butter cake was likely a staple of your childhood. With a rich, buttery cake as its base and a sticky, slightly caramelized topping dusted with confectioners’ sugar, the pastry is beloved in St. Louis. It’s sold in every local grocery store, including Schnucks and Dierbergs, and offered in almost every coffee shop. There are even dedicated bakeries that specialize in different flavors of gooey butter cake, such as red velvet, chocolate, lemon, and other wacky flavors, including piña colada and maple bacon.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
Like toasted ravioli, Imo’s pizza, and Ted Drewes’ frozen custard concrete, gooey butter cake is a St. Louis specialty. The minute you start driving outside of the St. Louis region, gooey butter cake becomes impossibly hard to find, which is unfortunate, because the dessert is something everyone should be able to enjoy, no matter where they live.
The history of gooey butter cake is shrouded in some mystery. Various bakeries claim to have invented it; according to a popular local legend, the dessert was a happy accident: A German baker was making a cake, mixed up the ratio of ingredients, and created a gooey cake instead of a more traditional yeasted coffee cake. Instead of tossing the cake, the frugal baker sold it as it was. Customers loved it, and a regional classic was born.
Today, gooey butter cake is almost always served as a morning or mid-afternoon coffee cake. It’s not unusual to see it as a side dish at birthday parties or potlucks, even though it’s sweet enough to be a dessert. Most St. Louis bakeries and grocery stores make it the old-fashioned way, with a yeasted cake base and a sticky topping of butter, sugar, and corn syrup. St. Louis home bakers, however, tend to make a different version with cake mix and top the batter with a cheesecake-like mixture of cream cheese and sugar. It’s significantly easier to make, but yields a different dessert that isn’t as satisfyingly chewy.
Today, I live in San Francisco. I have yet to find a local bakery that sells gooey butter cake, so the only way I can satisfy my hankering for it is to make it myself. Luckily for me, the dessert is relatively easy to make. The only thing that may be daunting is working with yeast. Just make sure your yeast is alive and viable, and the rest is, well, a piece of cake: Stir the yeast into warm milk with a bit of sugar, and set it aside as you prepare the other ingredients. It should bubble up nicely, but if not, you’ll want to get some new yeast and start over.
Like many yeasted coffee cakes, the dough requires some kneading to help develop just enough gluten to support the cake’s rise and structure. I start by creaming together the butter and sugar, followed by the eggs and flour. Then, I swap the paddle attachment for the dough hook, which makes light work of kneading. Don’t worry about overdeveloping the gluten, as the butter, eggs, and sugar help tenderize the dough.
Once you’ve made the dough, you’ll proof it until it’s puffy and doubled in size. The last step before baking is to prepare the topping. Dark brown sugar provides deep molasses and butterscotch notes, while corn syrup gives the topping its signature gooey texture. As the topping bakes, it thickens and caramelizes slightly. I may be in San Francisco, but this sweet, toothsome coffee cake tastes just like one you’d find in my hometown of St. Louis.
The Rich, Buttery Cake That’s Famous in St. Louis — Here’s How to Make It
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For the Cake Batter:
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1/3 cup whole milk (about 2 3/4 ounces; 80 g)
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1 tablespoon (15 ml) water
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50 g granulated sugar (1 3/4 ounces; 1/4 cup), divided
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2 1/4 teaspoons (7 g) active dry yeast
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113 g unsalted butter (4 ounces; 8 tablespoons), room temperature, plus more for greasing
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1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use half as much by volume
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1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
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1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
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1 large egg, room temperature
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1 large egg yolk, room temperature
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280 g all-purpose flour (9 3/4 ounces; 2 cups plus 3 tablespoons)
For the Topping:
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110 g light corn syrup (3 3/4 ounces; 6 tablespoons)
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2 tablespoons (30 ml) hot water
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255 g unsalted butter (9 ounces; 18 tablespoons), room temperature
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350 g granulated sugar (12 1/3 ounces; 1 3/4 cups)
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107 g dark brown sugar (3 3/4 ounces; 1/2 cup)
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1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract
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1 1/2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use half as much by volume
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1 large egg
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210 g all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces; 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons)
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Confectioners’ sugar, for topping
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Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with butter; set aside.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
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For the Cake: In a small saucepan, combine milk, water, and 1/4 teaspoon sugar. Set over medium-low heat until mixture is warm to the touch, about 100°F (38°C). Remove from heat and stir in yeast to dissolve. Let sit until mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
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In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, remaining sugar, salt, vanilla, and nutmeg. Mix on low speed to roughly incorporate, then increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, pausing halfway through to scrape down the sides with a flexible spatula, 2 to 3 minutes.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
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Using a flexible spatula, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add egg and egg yolk and beat on low speed to incorporate. (The mixture will slosh around a bit and look like runny scrambled eggs after 1 minute; this is normal.) Increase speed to medium and beat until batter breaks down into smaller curds, another 2 to 3 minutes. (The mixture will won’t be completely emulsified and will resemble cottage cheese; this is normal.)
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
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Scrape down the sides again and add the flour. Pulse mixer on and off until most of the flour has been absorbed, then reduce to low speed and mix until dough resembles a stiff cookie dough and mixer begins to strain slightly. With the mixer still on low speed, drizzle yeast and milk mixture into the bowl, and mix until milk is fully incorporated and batter is thick.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
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Carefully scrape batter off paddle into the bowl and switch to the hook attachment. Knead dough on medium-low until dough is smooth and elastic and clings to the dough hook when lifted up, 7 to 10 minutes. Using a dough scraper, scrape dough into prepared baking pan. Using ungreased hands, press the dough evenly into a 1/2-inch thick layer all the way across the bottom of the pan. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let sit at warm room temperature (75 to 80°F; 24 to 27°C) until puffy and doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
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For the Topping: About 15 minutes before cake is done rising, adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350°F (175°C). In a heat-proof spouted measuring cup, combine corn syrup with hot water. In the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt until mixture is fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
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Using a flexible spatula, scrape down bottom and sides of the bowl and, with the mixer running on low speed, add the egg, followed by the corn syrup mixture, and mix until fully incorporated.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
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Scrape down bottom and sides of the bowl again and add the flour. Pulse mixer until the flour is mostly absorbed, 3 to 4 pulses, then mix on low speed until batter is thick, about 2 minutes.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
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To Bake: Scrape batter over the risen dough (don’t worry if the dough deflates slightly from the weight of the topping) and, using an offset spatula, spread the topping from side to side to evenly cover dough. Bake until top of cake is golden brown but still liquid and jiggly, and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers 190° to 195°F (88° to 90°F), 35 to 45 minutes.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
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Remove from the oven. The top will be rippled with irregular peaks and valleys. Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack, about 1 hour. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, slice, and serve.
Serious Eats/ Larisa Niedle
Special Equipment
Kitchen scale, stand mixer with paddle and dough hook attachment, 9-by-13-by-2-inch metal baking pan
Notes
Although some people are wary of corn syrup, it’s worth noting that it’s a different product than high fructose corn syrup. The corn syrup is key to making the cake topping gooey, but if you are adamant about avoiding corn syrup, you can substitute mild-flavored honey in its place. However, be aware that the resulting cake will have honey-tasting notes and won’t taste like traditional gooey butter cake.
Make-Ahead and Storage
This cake is good the day that it’s made, but it improves in texture the day after. Store the cake and leftovers in an airtight container or the baking pan covered with plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 3 days.
You can freeze leftover slices or the entire cake by wrapping them tightly in plastic wrap and placing them in a zipper-top freezer bag before freezing. The entire cake will fit into a 2-gallon freezer bag. The cake can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw the cake at room temperature for at least 8 hours.
