If you're a St. Louisan, one of life's baffling questions is: "Why hasn't gooey butter cake caught on nationwide?"
Seriously, what's not to like about a cake with far more butter than needed, and that's coated liberally with powdered sugar?
So there's good news, Gateway gourmands. Our venerable snack staple is seeping its way across America.
In a story this week in USA Today — subtitled "How one man's mistake turned into a city's favorite dessert" — the author dives fork-deep into the treat.
While the author was not impressed with the cake's outward appearance, she quickly rebounds to hit the crucial point: "But when you’ve got something that’s buttery, sweet, crunchy and creamy all delivered in each perfect bite, who cares about looks?"
The article retells the tale of how the cake came about, how in the early 1940s Johnny Hoffman of St. Louis Pastries Bakery, a baking cooperative, created the cake by accidentally confusing the amounts of flour and butter.
Best of all, the article notes that word is spreading like warm butter to other U.S. locales.
Restaurants in Milwaukee and Austin, Texas, have begun to serve their own versions of gooey butter cake, one made with smoked blueberry jam and the other with double chocolate.
Best of all, the article reports that a plain gooey butter cake can be bought at Sugar Couture bakery in Brooklyn, New York.
What's left to say except, "You're welcome, America."
Have the St. Louis original Gooey Butter Cake Delivered to your front door anywhere in the country. This 1930’s breakfast/dessert treat has been a staple of millions of people’s meals. Since we are located in St. Louis we know what a gooey butter cake should be and we have sold thousands to wonderfully happy online and offline customers. We have shipped these to almost every state in America to travelers and people who were born here and have moved away, but nobody forgets this classic soft buttery taste.
Our cakes are always made to order, that means that your cake will only be made after you order it. It will also be mailed and/or delivered the day that it’s baked; nothing is ever frozen in our bakery. Each of these cakes are made from basic ingredients such as flour, eggs, and sugar, we never add any types of preservatives to anything so we always suggest if you are having your order shipped, you should ship it overnight.
When my family came to visit in August 2018, I went and bought a huge gooey butter cake for them (they were staying at an AirBnB due to pet allergies). From Gooey Louie, that place on Chippewa near-ish Ted Drewes? Anyway, it was a big one, and I left it there one evening, expecting maybe two-thirds of it to still be there the next morning so I could have a slice. Hell no, my family destroyed that bad boy, and had some more before they left too. Gooey butter cake could spread round the world!