You might be aware from reading my previous posts that D loves and reveres Gooey Butter Cake, which is a St. Louis specialty that is served with breakfast and as snacks. I am willing to bet there have been fist fights over who makes the best GBC. D’s absolute favorite is his best friend’s mothers version which is also considered the best by a native St. Louis-an (this same person is an Italian grandmother in case a native to St. Louis did not hold enough weight for you). I was a bit of a brat over the weekend (sorry everyone) and so decided that I would try to make the Gooey Louis…look at me making dessert twice in two weeks. The thing with baking is that it has to be done precisely – measurements MATTER or the end result might have an off consistency. Considering my measuring cups have dust on them – or on their better days are used as spoon holders – baking is not a strong suit. Couple this “precision” weakness with my lack of desire for sweet treats and I just do not bake often. This aversion is apparent in my baking supplies: my flour was one year and two months expired – I wish I was kidding. All that said, I would like to start baking more and maybe one day I will smell less like garlic and more like cookie dough. =) Which brings me to the cake attempt. This was my first attempt with making a cake of anything other than Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake (HEAVEN by the way) and I scoured recipes all day trying to devise a plan. I ended up using something like a combination of three recipes because there are two ways the cake is prepared. One is the traditional-but-made-in-bakeries method and the other is the home-kitchen-friendly method. The traditional uses corn syrup (which I just could not bring myself to buy) and also uses yeast for the crust dough. Sounds great in theory, but in reality, it was Wednesday night and I did not have time to make a yeast-dependent dough and deal with the rising process. In my pursuit of the perfect recipe (I was lacking D’s favorite at this point so I was trying to some how develop telepathy and guess the ingredients), I ran across a bog that discussed both methods – transnational versus cake version. Traditional won. So I decided to do something of a hybrid. I did not buy yellow cake mix at the store and instead had to “make” my own. I then used the non-traditional filling for ease and to avoid buying corn syrup. What is ironic about all of this is the email I received with D’s favotire recipe (Mrs. Rodriguez was wonderful enough to send it to him whilst I was walking back from Whole Foods – in the rain) and she used Yellow Cake mix! I was not about to venture out in the storm that opened up right when I was leaving the store, so I intend on making this again soon. This time with a cohesive plan, flour that is not expired, with yellow cake, and without accidentally skipping a step. Minor flaws aside, this cake smelled absolutely incredible and tasted pretty good – though it was not exactly like the gooey that Mrs. Rodriguez makes (and D loves). I need a few more trial and errors but, who knows,  maybe one day I will get this baking thing down! Oh, in case you are wondering – I still do not really know what Gooey Butter Cake tastes like as I did not have any – it amazes me how I cannot get out of the preztel jar but this delicious thing I have no aversion problems at all. I have issues…

For Crust

2 cups Flour

1.5 cups Sugar

One Stick Butter, melted

1 tablespoon baking power

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

For Filling

3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 eggs

1 (8oz) Cream Cheese (room temperature)

1 Box Powdered Sugar

1 1/2 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

One teaspoon Almond Extract

Add the crust ingredients to a mixer and mix well.  Spread into an ungreased 9×13 glass baking dish. In separate bowl mix remaining ingredients, minus 2 tablespoons for topping. Mix well and spread over batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, remove from oven to sprinkle remainder powdered sugar. Return to oven and bake an additional 25 - 30 minutes.