Gooey Butter Cupcakes with Lemon and Strawberries
Why I Love This Recipe
This cupcake was developed by my partner, Rob. I actually got the butthead to make a write a recipe. Enjoy!
Well as you know, Garrett finally succeeded in getting me in the kitchen to show off my baking skills. I couldn't ignore the challenge, after all, my reputation was at stake. But yeah... I wouldn't believe me either. Let's face it though, I met his challenge just so I wouldn't have to listen to him gloat.
For those of you who have been to St. Louis and had the opportunity to sample gooey butter cake - found only in St. Louis according to the city's tourist website - will agree with me when I say this is one of the densest, richest cakes out there.
Now like many of you I had never heard of gooey butter cake; I learned of it recently at a business conference hosted by a company based in, you guessed it, St. Louis. Before the conference started each representative of the host company stood up and introduced themselves and also rattled off their favorite dessert as a sort of ice breaker. As expected the same standard line of dessert was rattled off with numbing predictability. Cheesecake. Bread Pudding. Chocolate cake.
Gooey butter cake. Wait. Stop. I wondered to myself, what this delightfully named pastry could be? One of which I had neither heard of nor seen before in any of my travels.
After a quick Google search once back home, I was able to adapt a recipe all of my own, and let me tell you the cake lives up to its name. I adapted the recipe to a cupcake recipe as well, of course, would Garrett have it any other way? The cake is heavy and dense, and very gooey with all the cream cheese. It was actually too rich, but I squeezed fresh lemon juice over it which toned down the sweetness, the sour-tart juice balancing everything. We also served it with strawberries to add a different kind of fresh sweetness to lighten the cake a bit.
It wasn't labor or time intensive and was the perfect choice for Garrett's bake-off challenge.
If you like this recipe, I hope you'll enjoy the others you find at my blog, VANILLA GARLIC
Ingredients You'll Need
1/2 cup of butter
1 box of yellow cake mix
3 eggs
8 oz of cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
4 cups of confectioners sugar
2 lemons
Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Using cooking spray (Pam) spray a cupcake tin and the cupcake liners you intend to use, the batter sticks to anything and everything otherwise.
Melt the butter, then mix it, along with one egg, into the cake mix to form a bulky dough. Press the dough into the prepared cupcake papers.
In a large bowl mix the cream cheese, almond extract, remaining 2 eggs, and sugar until thick and creamy. Spread over the tops of the yellow cake.
Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes or until brown on top. Allow cupcakes to cool. Cake will be gooey on top so be sure to not over bake.
Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the cupcakes and serve with strawberries.
Questions, Comments & Reviews
Ronda