What is a gooey butter cake, you ask? And why is it called cake when it looks more like pie? Those are both valid questions. Let's start with the "what is it". It's not a "cake cake", it's a "coffee cake cake". With origins in St. Louis, Missouri, there are several claims to fame (like any famous recipe); ingredients switched...wrong filling mistakenly used...either way it seemed to come about as a happy mistake. In it's basic form, it is the anti-diet food. A base of a shortbread nature. An ooey-gooey filling made from lots of butter, full-fat cream cheese, eggs (with extra yolks), and sugar. How could it not be irresistible?
There are two schools. One school uses a yellow cake mix as a base, the other does not. This version does not. And the original doesn't have pumpkin in it,either - but as you know, 'tis the season for me to stick pumpkin (or any winter squash for that matter) into anything and everything.
