Maple Gooey Butter Cake | In Season

The original gooey butter cake was invented in the 1930s in St. Louis, Missouri. As the story goes, a German baker mistakenly added too much butter to a coffee cake, baked it anyway, and found that the texture was delightful: crisp on top and velvet-soft in the middle.

While the original recipe calls for a yeast-risen dough, later versions simplified the process to the point that many cooks now use cake mix for the base. That’s all well and good, but with five minutes and a few on-hand ingredients, you’ll get something even better: a caramelized base layer with a creamy, ooey-gooey top. Baked in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, the result more closely resembles bars than cake, but the name sticks.

Now in case you’re wondering why the Yankee food editor would go beyond New England for this recipe, there are three reasons: First, we know that many of you live in other parts of the country, so this may be a familiar dish. Second, it’s simply too delicious to pass up. Finally, and most important, gooey butter cake is even better when made with maple syrup. St. Louis may have invented it, but we perfected it.

Get the Recipe: Maple Gooey Butter Cake

Amy Traverso

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