AHFT St. Louis Traditions: Gooey Butter Cake
“gooey butter cake is an undeniably iconic St. Louis dessert.”
#amyshereforthis
Who doesn’t love cake? Actually, if you don’t love cake, please don’t answer that. I’m a baker and I take these things personally. But my point here is that most people love cake. And today I’d like to talk about it, but rather than chatting about cake in general (which I would honestly love to do. Let me know if you’re in for a cake chat), I’d like to focus on one specific kind: the iconic St. Louis gooey butter cake.
If you’re not familiar, gooey butter cake is a popular local treat made out of a sweet dough base (most home-bakers use a cake mix for this part) topped with a sticky, gooey filling composed of cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. Once baked, the slightly crisp top is finished with a generous dusting of more powdered sugar.
Since I grew up in the area, I didn’t realize that gooey butter was a local food until adulthood. I thought that every city enjoyed this delightful treat. While I do think that the age of internet recipes and exposure has made gooey butter cake a more widely-known dessert (there’s even a Jeni’s gooey butter ice cream!), St. Louis still lays claim to the most availability and popularity.
“Choosing your favorite gooey butter cake in St. Louis is a lot like choosing your favorite…well, anything: people have big opinions.”
#amyshereforthis
Choosing your favorite gooey butter cake in St. Louis is a lot like choosing your favorite…well, anything: people have big opinions. Many would say that Park Avenue Coffee has the best gooey butter in town. Others (my husband being one of them) might prefer Russell’s Cafe and Bakery. Still others swear by Gooey Louie, McArthur’s Bakery, or Federhofer’s Bakery. My personal favorite? Schnucks. That’s right, I think the best gooey butter cake in the city can be found in the grocery store bakery department.
Much like which gooey butter cake is the best, there are varied opinions held on what time of day to eat it. My husband’s family serves gooey butter cake with brunch, but growing up, I only ever had it as a dessert. Some people say it’s perfect for afternoon tea or with breakfast like a coffee cake. Personally, I think of the treat as a dessert item, but I don’t think there is a wrong time to eat gooey butter cake.
So where did gooey butter come from? How did it get here and why did it make such a lasting impact on our city?
Well, much like last month’s dive into the origins of jokes on Halloween, there doesn’t seem to be one clear answer to this question. Instead, my research proved to land on a few different theories about the birth of gooey butter cake in St. Louis.
The first theory is that the cake was made accidentally by a German baker in the 1930s. Legend has it that this baker mixed up some proportions in a recipe for a cake, including way too much butter and possibly excess sugar as well. The result would have been gooey and not what he planned for, but such as wasting ingredients was a no-go in the Depression era, this baker decided to go ahead and try to sell his mistake. Much to his surprise, his customers went crazy over it and gooey butter cake became an instant hit.
The other origin stories point to either Koppe’s Bakery, Danzer’s Bakery, or St. Louis Pastries for developing the very first GBC. Some people say it was a similar accident to the one described above, while others claim a more purposeful approach to the birth of this treat.
There’s no proof for any of these theories so we ultimately don’t know who should get credit, but it’s safe to say that gooey butter cake originated in one of the many German bakeries in south St. Louis city during the 1930s or 1940s. While we may never know its true origin, gooey butter cake is an undeniably iconic St. Louis dessert and one that I think will continue to delight St. Louisans for generations to come.
So where’s your favorite place to get gooey butter cake? What St. Louis tradition should we explore the origins of next?