What's not to like about a cake with far more butter than needed, and that's coated liberally with powdered sugar?
There's good news. The venerable St. Louis snack staple of gooey butter cake is seeping its way across America.
In a recent story in USA Today _ subtitled "How one man's mistake turned into a city's favorite dessert" _ the author dives fork-deep into the treat.
While the author was not impressed with the cake's outward appearance, she quickly rebounds to hit the crucial point: "But when you've got something that's buttery, sweet, crunchy and creamy all delivered in each perfect bite, who cares about looks?"
The article retells the tale of how the cake came about, how in the early 1940s Johnny Hoffman of St. Louis Pastries Bakery, a baking cooperative, created the cake by accidentally confusing the amounts of flour and butter.
Best of all, the article notes that word is spreading like warm butter to other U.S. locales.
Restaurants in Milwaukee and Austin, Texas, have begun to serve their own versions of gooey butter cake, one made with smoked blueberry jam and the other with double chocolate.
Best of all, the article reports that a plain gooey butter cake can be bought at Sugar Couture bakery in Brooklyn, New York.
What's left to say except, "You're welcome, America."
