Cake for Breakfast with a side of Angina

St. Louis is very healthy when it comes to our food preferences. Yep. We take perfectly respectable ravioli and dredge it through breading so we can deep fry that bad boy. Nothing like some good toasted ravioli for the 'ol arteries. And ice cream? No way jose- that's for lightweights. St. Louis is about frozen custard.

That's St. Lous for you. Healthy. So it should come as no surprise that breakfast has its own special tradition. It's called Gooey Butter Cake. Now some people might try and tell you it's just a cheese danish version of coffee cake. But they're in denial. Cause the true recipe to be found most places for this delicacy starts with yellow cake mix from a box. Cause that's how all fine delicacies usually start, right? From Wikiworld:
Gooey Butter Cake is a type of cake traditionally made in the U.S. city of St. Louis, Missouri, with a bottom layer of buttery yellow cake and a top layer of either egg and cream cheese, or butter and sugar. It is generally served as a type of coffee cake and not as a dessert cake. It is believed to have originated around 1943.

Now, for all of you gourmandos out there turning up your nose right now... Do you hear that??
No? Of course you don't, because my heart just stopped. This showed up in my mailbox:


Hellooooo lohvah...


"The Notebook has nothing on me"


File this one under "Duh."

That's right- Saveur is highlighting Butter as the star of the show for March.
Oh! And who is that on the red carpet right now?


He's getting embarrassed by this lovefest.

So what the hell is the point of all this rambling you may ask? Well, Culinography has persuaded us to feed our obsession for breakfast with Homegrown breakfast recipes. And let's see here...if TW is honest she would fess up that her own obsessions include buttah and cupcakes. along with red wine, reading blogs, and sarcasm. So it's practically divine destiny that I live in good 'ol St. Louie.
Can I get a woot!?! And yes, I promise to quit referencing myself in the third person.


Gooey Butter Cupcakes
makes 2 dozen

For the Butter Cake:
1- 1/2 cups gran. Sugar
1 cup unsalted Butter
3/4 cup Buttermilk
2 t Vanilla
4 large Egg yolks
2 large Egg whites
2 cups Cake Flour
1 t Baking Powder
1/4 t Baking Soda
1/2 t Salt

Whip egg whites in clean mixer bowl over medium high heat until foamy. Add 1/2 cup sugar until stiff peaks form. Transfer to separate bowl. In mixing bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and butter. Add sour cream and yolks one at a time. Add vanilla. Scrape down sides. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Over low gradually add flour mixture to creamed mixture. Scrape down sides and make sure flour combined. Remove bowl from mixer and gently fold egg whites into batter using spatula. Spoon batter into prepared cupcake tins with liners. Fill liners approx. half full and create divet/well in the middle pushing more batter up the sides of the liner.


For the Gooey Filling:
2 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 cup Butter
2 egg yolks
8 oz. Mascarpone (can substitute cream cheese)
1 T Vanilla
1/2 t Lemon Extract
1 t Almond extract

Cream together butter and yolks until just combined. Add mascarpone. Scrape down sides. Add vanilla, lemon and almond. Gradually add powdered sugar until just combined. Scoop spoonful of filling into the cupcakes placing the filling into the prepared well. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Note: Do not overbake- filling will be "gooey." Uhm, thus the name. Let cool completely and dust with powdered sugar.




Coming Clean
Buttery gooey sugary YUM! Serve with a stiff espresso and perhaps an additional aspirin for the 'ol ticker, alright? Lots of people do all kinds of crazy things with gooey butter cakes. You can add nutmeg, cinnamon, pumpkin, all kinds of fun. Uhm, don't believe me just how crazy St. Louis folks get about their gooey butter cake then just check out this.

Of course none of this makes them healthier granted and your arteries probably hardened just reading this post. But healthy was not the theme this month. And just a little indulgence never killed anyone. Ok, maybe it has. But butter is back in vogue people. So hop on the bandwagon will ya? Hear that? It's Saveur calling and they want your baking license back unless you rush right out and stock up on Plugra this very second.
thankyouverymuch~ this public service announcement brought to you by TW.