Auntie Jen's Family Trees: Vintage Family Recipes

Gooey Butter Cake, a St. Louis staple for sure! Have you ever heard of it? Most people out of St. Louis have either not heard of it or have heard about it, but haven't tried it. Let me tell you, oh it's delicious! Since I am from St. Louis, I am very familiar with this ooey-gooey dessert.
But how did it come about? Who created this fantastic dessert? Well, there are plenty of claims around about who came up with it first. There are two stories mentioned on the website, "What's Cooking America?" Two families claim to be the original creators of this iconic recipe, but neither have the proof to back up their stories. This article does include a recipe for Gooey Butter Cake, but it doesn't match the recipe left behind by Grandma.

The recipe is typed out below to better understand

Gooey Butter Cake

9x13in Pan, Grease

Crust on bottom:

1 Yellow Cake Mix**

1 Egg

1 Stick of Oleo*, soft (butter) &

press it in the bottom of the pan

Filling:

2 Eggs

1-1 lb box of Powdered Sugar

1-8 oz cream cheese, soft &

mix and pour on top and

bake 350° for 40-45 minutes

and let cool & sprinkle

some powder sugar on top.

This recipe was in my grandma's collection when it was given to me. It was just written down on a notecard. I've had this recipe for many years now, but never tried it. I've only seen my mom and grandma make it, but that was about 20 years ago. So since we have had time recently because of the self-quarantine, I decided to give this recipe a shot.

Everything I used in this recipe

UPDATE: I never took into account the different ingredients that were available in other locations, so I am adding some substitutions in case some items are not available. Note: I have not tried the cake with these substitutions as of yet, so I do not know how it will turn out. If you have found success using the substitutions or have used something else that works better, please leave a comment below.

*Oleo is an old term that was used for Margarine back in the day. Margarine is more like a solidified vegetable oil and was much cheaper to use than butter. So many recipes had this as a substitute. I do not use Margarine. I avoid it for its unhealthy content. So I use real butter. Our butter comes in sticks, so the measurement is one stick of butter. That translates to 1/4 lb. butter or 1/2 c. depending on what your normal unit of measurement is.

**Yellow Cake Mix comes pre-mixed in boxes here by us. See photo above. If you do not have pre-mixed cake mixes by you, here is what you will need:

2 1/4 c. (281g) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 c. (300g) granulated sugar

3 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Optional:

1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract for flavoring

Note: The recipe listed above is the dry ingredients for a basic yellow cake mix. I have not tried this substitution for the box of Yellow Cake Mix, so I do not know how this is going to work or taste. You may need the optional Vanilla Extract to give it flavoring, because the box mix may already have vanilla flavoring. I am only basing that assumption on the fact when I mixed the box mix, I smelled vanilla.

If you would like to see how I made this recipe myself with the original ingredients listed,

watch the video below.

Photos of the finished product!

So this is going to be something new I'm going to do during this time. Trying to cook some vintage family recipes from my collection. Since my Papa Fuchs's birthday is coming up in June, I'm going to make a recipe that is in the Oakland cookbook that my Grandma Fuchs provided, called George's Casserole. It sounds similar to ratatouille. We will see!