I had never actually heard of a gooey butter cake until recently. It is not something you come across regularly here in Southern California, but I am so glad I did. This cake is dense and rich-and a little goes a long way.
I knew that this would be a great recipe to showcase the creaminess of Plugrá's new tub of butter. Indeed the cake was creamy and delicious. Because I had used salted butter, I omitted the salt in the bottom layer in order to not over salt.
I LOVE salted butter. It takes me back to my childhood when my grandfather would take some fresh bread out of the bread maker and my grandmother would immediately spread salted butter all over the bread. To this day it is still the only thing she buys. In fact, whenever she comes to stay with me (or anyone for that matter) she always has a little cold pack filled with her salted butter.
I recently brought her a few tubs of Plugrá salted butter and a piece of this cake and she just about went crazy! Definitely a new family favorite in both categories!
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- ¼ cup corn starch
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup unsalted butter , melted
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 8 ounces cream cheese , softened
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsalted butter , melted and cooled
- 16 ounce box of powdered sugar
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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In a bowl sift together flour, corn starch, baking powder and salt.
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Using a hand beater or an electric mixer, mix together melted butter and sugar.
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Add flour mixture to butter and sugar, mix until combined.
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Add egg and milk, and mix to combine.
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Gradually add flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture until fully combined.
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Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper or foil.
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Press bottom layer into the bottom of the pan.
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Beat together cream cheese, eggs, vanilla and melted butter.
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Gradually add powdered sugar and beat on medium low until combined.
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Spread top layer onto bottom layer evenly.
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Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Cake will still be wiggly in the center, but this is what makes it a "gooey cake".
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Cool for 30 minutes before cutting. Serve with fresh berries and sifted powdered sugar, if desired.
Recipe adapted from the keenancookbook.com
I am a brand ambassador for Plugrá butter. I did receive compensation for this post, however all opinions are my own....especially those based on butter 🙂
Kimberly Ann
Loooove gooey butter bars/cake! That's the Texas in me talking, definitely not something you come across in Cali often. 🙂
katy
Please where's the sugar for the bottom layer ?
theseasidebaker
Oh you are so right! I just added it! Thank you 🙂
Judy Ruff
On the bottom layer ingredients you list the dry mixture to sift together.Then you say mix the sugar with the butter and then combine with dry mixture so my question is how is this possible if you sifted it all together ???
theseasidebaker
You are right! Thanks for catching my typo. I removed the sugar from the items that are sifted together.
ames
I've seen Paula Deen make this same sort of recipe, but she used a cake mix for the bottom.