When it comes to gooey desserts, perhaps the champion is the aptly named gooey butter cake, though, surprisingly, it is little known outside our region. Perhaps that's because the gooey butter cake was invented here in the Midwest and possibly the recipe has been understandably safeguarded ever since.
Like many a delicacy -- fudge, brownies and chocolate chip cookies among them --the gooey butter cake was created by accident. Legend has it, sometime in the 1930s; a German baker in St. Louis inadvertently put too much sugar into his cake batter and was too thrifty to waste it, so he just baked it instead.
The glutinous result was a hit and today there's hardly a bakery in St. Louis or the surrounding region that doesn't offer a version. _______________________________________________________________
