Do you have stories in your family that get told over again and become a family classic? We certainly do! There’s a story behind the ooey gooey butter cake recipe I’m about to show you.
We especially loved the stories that our mom and dad told about how the world was when they were growing up. Our Dad had some classic stories about the antics he and his buddies pulled to have some fun while living on a farm. But that is a story for another time.
Easy! 5 Steps In Preparing Ooey Gooey Butter Cake
Today’s story is about butter. I can never think of butter without remembering one of my mother’s experiences with butter. It was during World War II, and my mother lived in a project.
She remembers getting rations during the war, and one of the things that were in scarce supply was butter. She told us that it used to come as white butter with a little packet of yellow dye. To make your butter yellow, you took the packet and mixed it into the butter.
Well, one time her older brother decided to have some fun with their butter. Along with the yellow packet of coloring that came with the butter, he thought it would be funny to add a few drops of blue, thus making a lovely green butter.
Their mother (my grandmother) was furious because they wouldn’t be getting any more butter any time soon. They had to use what they had and so they had to spread green butter on everything.
Ooey Gooey Butter Cake Ingredients;
Cake
- One 18 1/4 – ounce package yellow cake mix
- One egg
- 16 tablespoons melted butter
- One tablespoon vanilla
Filling
- One 8-ounce package of cream cheese softened
- Two eggs
- One 16-ounce box of powdered sugar
- One tablespoon vanilla
- 16 tablespoons melted butter
Step 1: Preheat Oven
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. The average time is just 15 minutes
This ensures that the browning temperature is reached. It’s a clever way to make sure that all of those glorious flavors are formed.
Step 2: Combine The Butter Cake Mix
Combine the cake mix, egg, and eight tablespoons of butter and mix well with an electric mixer. You may also do so manually with a whisk, doing it continuously for at least 3 minutes until it becomes light and fluffy.
Press the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 9×13 baking pan.
Step 3: Spray Pan
Spray the pan with a baking spray. If not, you may grease it and line it with parchment paper.
It will help you achieve a nonstick pan. As a result, the pan releases the cake easily.
Step 4: Beat The Cream Cheese To Smoothness
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, eight tablespoons of butter, and vanilla, and beat them together.
You may do this for about 3-7 minutes depending on the amount of cream cheese. You may use a mixer or a whisk to achieve desired texture. Do this until it becomes light-colored and fluffy.
It helps you avoid clumps and bursts of sour flavors. It also makes it lighter and easier to spread on the batter.
Step 5: Add Sugar And Mix Well
Next, add the powdered sugar and mix well. Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey.
Tips To Making The Perfect Ooey Gooey Butter Cake
1. Get your pan ready
Prepare your pan by spraying or greasing it before use. You can use homemade baker’s spray. Here’s a simple instruction on how to make the perfect baker’s spray.
If you do not wish to use baker’s spray, grease your pan and line with parchment paper. As you may already know, it is necessary to do this.
It performs the same function as nonstick cooking spray–it prevents baked goods from sticking to the pans and lets you release them cleanly and easily from the container.
2. Mix all ingredients in a single bowl
It is the secret to achieving perfection. Mixing all the ingredients in a single bowl and then bake.
Doing this properly reduces the percentage of fat overall. It also facilitates the formation of gluten, which binds the batter together.
3. Whip Cream Cheese
Whip the cream cheese with a whisk or mixer until it is light and fluffy. Do this for at least 3 minutes to produce an even mixture.
It softens the texture of the cheese and adds some moisture.
4. Use room temperature eggs, butter, and other dairy ingredients
Set your butter and cream cheese out a couple of hours before you plan on making the butter cake.
If your butter is too cold because there is not enough time to soften, the sugar crystals cannot mix well with the butter. It results in overall recipe failure.
Ooey Gooey Butter Cake Nutrition Facts
Nutrition facts per serving
- Calories 334
- Protein 3.7g
- Carbohydrates 49.5g
- Fat 13.9g
- Cholesterol 69.2mg
- Sodium 277.7mg
Ooey Gooey Butter Cake With Condensed Milk
Condensed milk is simply cow’s milk in which water (approximately 60%) has been removed. It has sugar added. The advantage of condensed milk is that it can be stored for months without needing electricity.
You can use condensed milk in place of cream cheese. For people with protein allergy and lactose intolerance, this milk is unsuitable.
As with the regular ooey gooey butter cake recipe, this requires the use of all ingredients except cream milk been replaced with condensed milk.
Step By Step Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F as usual. Spray pan with baking spray or grease with oil.
- Using an electric mixer or whisk cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract. Beat for at least 3 minutes on medium-high speed stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl periodically.
- Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
- Lower the speed of the mixer and add sifted dry ingredients alternately with the sweetened condensed milk, beginning and ending with flour. After all, has been added beat for 30-45 seconds.
- Pour evenly into the prepared pan. Bounce to release the trapped air.
- Place into the oven and bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes back clean. Check at 40 minutes and lay a piece of aluminum foil on top to prevent over-browning, if needed.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove the outer ring. Cool to room temperature on a cooling rack.
- Dust with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream and fresh berries, if desired.
What You Can Serve With Ooey Gooey Butter Cake
To enjoy your butter cake, even more, you can serve it with any of the following
- Wine
- Tea
- Coffee
- Cheese
- Vanilla Yoghurts
- Ice-cream
- Apple Sauce
- Fruit
Ooey Gooey Butter Cake Variations
As beautifully outlined here, there are several variations of the ooey gooey butter cake recipe.
There’s surely one or two that will please your taste buds. You could even try out several variations from these for the sake of your grandkids.
- Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake: Add one can of pumpkin puree, eight tablespoons of melted butter, one teaspoon cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon nutmeg to the filling.
- Lemon Gooey Butter Cake: Use a lemon cake mix, and add ¼ cup lemon juice and one teaspoon lemon zest to the filling.
- Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake: Use a chocolate cake mix. Add ¼ cup of cocoa to the filling.
- Cinnamon Gooey Butter Cake: Mix 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar and 1 ½ teaspoon of cinnamon together, and sprinkle over the topping before baking.
- Red Velvet Gooey Butter Cake: Use a red velvet cake mix.
- Strawberry Gooey Butter Cake: Use a strawberry cake mix. Top with sliced fresh strawberries.
Best Butter For Making Ooey Gooey Butter Cake
Ooey gooey butter cake requires butter at room temperature. This means butter that is naturally soft and thus spreads easily. If it has been hardened from being in the refrigerator it will not cream well with the sugar and other ingredients. This would result in overall recipe failure.
To prevent this, the recommended butter should be:
– Unsalted
Using this type of butter allows you to better control the amount of salt that goes into your recipe (if you are adding salt).
– Low in fat
Lower fat content means the butter contains more water and is therefore softened. Soft buttercreams well with sugar and other ingredients.
This avoids clumpiness. High-fat butter, on the other hand, is less moist but softens and melts faster. This means that when used, it can lead to flat, dense baked goods. In other words, this isn’t good for you.
Luckily butter now comes in a soft, creamy yellow and we can make this cake so it will look like this:
Paula Deen's Ooey Gooey Butter Cake
Ingredients
- Cake:
- 1 18 1/4- ounce package yellow cake mix
- 1 egg
- 16 tablespoons melted butter divided
- Filling:
- 1 8- ounce package cream cheese softened
- 2 eggs
- 1 16- ounce box powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine the cake mix, egg, and 8 tablespoons butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Press the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 9x13 baking pan.
- In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, 8 tablespoons butter, and vanilla and beat together.
- Next, add the powdered sugar, and mix well. Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.
I must issue a warning here if you haven’t already figured it out on your own. This cake is super rich and a little goes a long way. When I made this for my family, I cut the pieces as big as a regular piece of cake and no one was able to finish it. However, every one of them LOVED the cake.
The verdict from my family? Paula Deen’s Ooey Gooey Butter Cake ROCKS!
Do not try to make your butter green at home. Leave this up to the professionals!
Beverly Powers says
How much butter is put into the filling says add butter but no amount showing for filling. Also how much vanilla.
Debbie says
Hi Bev! I have corrected the recipe to read 1 tsp of vanilla and there is no butter in the filling. Thanks for the catch!
shirley a says
the butter & vanilla amount is missing in the filling!
Debbie says
Hi Shirley! Well I must have typed this late at night! So sorry for the error. There is 1 tsp of vanilla but no butter in the filling. Thanks so much for the heads up!
Harold says
THERE IS BUTTER INTO THE FILLING !
Hello Debbie,
how’s is going…
I am questioning about if there is butter or not into the filling. Because in the Paula’s recipe , Paula put butter in her batter. i checked that.
if there is not butter it means this is not anymore a butter cake but this is a cheesecake ( Cream cheese, eggs ans sugar)
this is the butter makes the difference.
Can i have your point of view ?
Debbie says
Hi Harold! There is butter in the filling so hopefully this is a recipe that you’re looking for!
Harold says
Debbie,
i forgot to tell you your blog is wonderful….
Debbie says
Thank you so much! We are very glad that you’re here!
Olympia says
Hi there! Should you refrigerate the leftovers or leave out? The cake is amazing by the way! Thank you❤️
Debbie says
I have always refrigerated mine after baking. I think it definitely lasts longer! So glad that you like it!