My Final Bake Of 2022 Lemon Gooey Butter

If you are anything like me you might be thinking about what will be your final over-indulgent meals and/or treats will be for the year 2022. Perhaps you will be one to take more often to the treadmill at the gym and I’m bracing myself for the sore muscles that come from not working out in quite some time! Now that I’m in my mid-30’s, I don’t love the realization that I’m not a young whipper snapper anymore and I can’t get out there and do crazy physical feats and workouts without some pretty notable consequences these days!

I have been giving quite a lot of thought to this and have decided on an extremely delicious option if you love delicious baked goods, particularly ones that have a shortbread-type crust, gooey center, and an endless variety of lovely flavor combination! This magic baked good is none other than the famous treat of the midwest—gooey butter cake! Have you had gooey butter cake? If not, I highly recommend you join me in making this recipe soon—you won’t regret it!


It all started with a recommended video for a gooey butter cake video on YouTube and of course I naturally went down a whole gooey butter cake rabbit hole and can’t think of anything else!

I landed on Paula Deen’s recipe that came from a video she made at the beginning of quarantine in 2020. Apparently she got on and shared plenty of recipes of her baking and cooking in her kitchen in Savannah, Georgia for her fans to enjoy and get their spirits littered with her energy during the pandemic.

She is in some ways the queen of gooey butter cake variations (she said she’s come up with “about 70 different variations”!) and apparently her pumpkin gooey cake is her biggest hit, both as a recipe on her website with the most hits, as well as the most requested dessert in her restaurants.


I am going to definitely have to give that one a try because a ton of people in the comments mentioned that they never make pumpkin pie anymore and always bring this dessert to Thanksgiving dinner now instead so I am definitely intrigued!

Gooey butter cake is truly not much like a traditional cake at all. It has a very thick, almost crust-like batter that goes on the bottom of the pan, followed by a custard layer on top. You bake it for 40-50 minutes, or until it is almost all the way set, but a little jiggly still in the center. You can cut it into slices, top with powdered sugar and eat it with your hands, if you please. It is delicious warm, at room temperature, or even cold. There are SO many variations you can look up if you are intrigued—anything from cherry to sweet potato.

I just love lemon everything so I can’t wait to try a lemon version. To do this you need to make a couple changes to the recipe below. You would use a lemon cake mix instead of yellow, and add ¼ cup of fresh lemon juice and the zest of two lemons to the cream cheese mixture. So yummy!! I have shared the traditional vanilla variety that is a great place to start in the recipe below.

What do you plan on making for the final treat of the year? Does this gooey butter cake pique your interest? I am such a baked goods girl and cannot wait to try this twist on one of my favorite baked goods of all time.


Original Gooey Butter Cake

This original gooey butter cake recipe from Paula Deen is an easy to make dessert. Ingredients include yellow cake mix , softened cream cheese and powdered sugar. Prep time is approximately 10 minutes and cooking time takes 50 minutes at 350°F. Author: Paula Deen Total Time: 10 minutes

Serving size: 8
Calories per serving: 226

Ingredients:
1 package (18 1/4 oz) yellow cake mix
1 egg
16 tablespoons melted, divided butter
1 package (8 oz) softened cream cheese
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 box (16 oz) powdered sugar


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 °F. Combine the cake mix, egg and 8 tablespoons butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla and 8 tablespoons butter and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar and mix well. Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Source: pauladeen.com


Recipe formatted with the Cook'n Recipe Software from DVO Enterprises.



Add Recipe to Cook'n



    Mary Richardson
    Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2014
    Email the author! mary@dvo.com

Sources:
  •   www.commons.wikimedia.org
  •   www.flickr.com
  •   www.lifeofchadandamy.blogspot.com
  •   www.pauladeen.com

Subscribe to Cook'n Premium and get newsletter articles like this each week!


blog comments powered by Disqus