Gooey Butter Cake from Scratch

Anna saw what looked like a yummy pudding on TV the other day called Gooey Butter Cake. We therefore decided to look it up so that we could try it.

It seems to be an American recipe though and they all start with the main ingredient of ‘1 packet of yellow cake mix’. Now, I’m not sure what ‘yellow cake’ is, and you can call me old-fashioned, but starting a cake with a cake mix isn’t ‘proper’ baking. ‘Yellow Cake’ however seems to just be a basic sponge cake mix so we decided to make our own, starting from scratch with proper ingredients such as flour, eggs, milk and sugar without a packet of cake mix in sight.

So, without further ado, here’s our recipe for Gooey Butter Cake from scratch without a cake mix.

Method

1. Using a wooden spoon mix the ingredients for the base together in a large bowl until moist. The consistency will be that of cookie dough type, and I guess it is kind of yellow!
2. Spread the dough out evenly over a large (30cm x 20cm) rectangular cake tin lined with grease proof paper.
3. Place the cream cheese in the large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract to the cream cheese, whilst continuing to beat with the mixer.
5. Gradually add the icing sugar, mixing all the time until a sticky sauce is formed.
6. Pour this sauce over the base.
7. Bake in an oven at 170°C for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown on top and set.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes or so (if you can wait that long).

The result is a gooey, very sweet mixture between sticky caramelised sponge, sweet vanilla egg custard and toffee with a crispy topping. The topping is almost like the sugar coating you get on the top of party ring biscuits. As always, the end crispy caramelised bits are the best, but if you like your puddings sweet then this is just the job for you. You can’t in any way pretend it is good for you though, so only bake it if you think you can handle it!

Tags: Recipes & Cooking