Favourite Gooey Butter Cake

Gooey butter cake is St. Louis bakery heritage in a 9-inch pan. A short, crumbly pat-in crust holds a filling so loaded with butter, sugar, and a generous slug of corn syrup that it sets up barely firm in the middle, with chewy edges and a soft, almost spoonable center.

This is the made-from-scratch version, not the cake mix shortcut that took over the internet. The shortbread base is cut together like pie dough, then the filling whips quickly with one egg and gets layered with evaporated milk for richness and structure.

Don’t panic when the batter looks slightly broken. That curdled appearance is normal for this recipe and bakes out into the signature texture.

Pro Tips

• Underbake on purpose. Pull the pan when the center still jiggles a touch, the gooey middle is the whole point of the cake.
• Cool completely before cutting. Warm slices ooze and fall apart, fully cooled gives clean squares that still pull at the fork.
• Use room temperature butter for the filling, cold butter won’t cream properly with the sugar and the texture goes off.
• Dust powdered sugar right before serving, not before storage, or it dissolves into the gooey top and disappears.

Variations

• Add a half teaspoon of almond extract along with the egg for a marzipan note.
• Sprinkle a handful of toasted pecans or coconut over the filling before baking for crunch.
• Swap a tablespoon of the flour in the filling for cocoa powder for a chocolate gooey butter cake.