My penchant for all things Paula Deen is well-established on this blog, so I won't make you read, for the umpteenth time, how much I love her, want her to join my family, and highly desire for her to bring her two adorable sons over to my house for dinner (which she, and not I, will cook).Instead, I am about to fulfill my promise to you, my faithful readers. A promise I made back in October, as a part of the Pumpkin Pay It Forward Contest. If you remember, Miss Deen's recipe for Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake received the most votes, and should have been the recipe I baked for the contest. But, given its fragile-sounding constitution, and given that the yumminess would have to be shipped potentially cross-country (and as it turned out, internationally), I figured that wasn't the smartest idea. So I baked the Pumpkin Pound Cake instead, but vowed to, at some point, make the true winning recipe and post it here.
Well, my friends, the time has come.
On Friday night, I baked the Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. And let me just tell you, it was delicious. And addicting. And likely probably not the healthiest thing in the world for you, given that the recipe calls for two sticks of butter. But it's made with pumpkin! Which is a vegetable! Of which you are supposed to partake in 6-8 servings a day, no? So, in my esteemed opinion, eat up!
Anyway, it wasn't as "gooey" as I thought it would be. The top portion was the consistency of pumpkin pie, and the bottom was the consistency of cake. And the combination of the two? Was sinfully good. And, since I received this book as a Christmas gift, and the recipe for Gooey Butter Cake is included, I now hold the knowledge that there are many, many variations of this recipe, including Lemon Gooey Butter Cake, Peanut Butter Gooey Butter Cake, Chocolate Chip Gooey Butter Cake, among others. And apparently, these cakes are the most requested dessert at Paula's The Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah. Now I know why.
Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
1 egg
1 stick of butter, melted
For the Filling
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 15-ounce can of pumpkin pie filling
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 16-ounce box of confectioners' sugar
1 stick butter, melted
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and lightly grease a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, egg, and butter, and mix well. Pat into the bottom of the prepared pan, and set aside.
3. Using the electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth; add eggs and vanilla. Add confectioners' sugar and beat well. Reduce speed of mixer and slowly pour in butter. Mix well.
4. Pour filling onto cake mixture and spread evenly. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Oven temperatures may vary, so Paula recommends you keep an eye on the oven. You want the ceter to be a little gooey, so don't bake it past this point.
5. Cool completely and cut into squares.
Then, dig in!
I trust that by now, you've worked out the kinks on how to ship this cake across the country. I also trust you see it only fit that the giver of the cookbook from which this recipe came, deserves to taste its output. Yes?
Mmmmm! It looks & sounds incredible. And easy!
This Paula Deen is something I miss out on, not having cable. Sounds like she's something & that cookbook must be decadent!!
That looks delicious and easy!
And yet, I'm still lazy...but...I only live in Philadelphia, I'm sure it could survive a quick ship over.
I love Paula Dean. Love.
I am gonna try this one! I made just the regular gooey butter cake over the holidays and it was YUMMY! Thanks for the recipe.
Caryl-We are totally going there when I come to NC!
Karrie-But of course!
Sher-My thoughts exactly.
Marie-You need to get cable just for the Food Network alone. ;)
Jenny-Glad you liked it.
Christine- I'm glad you share the Paula love. She rocks.
Sunshine-I can't wait to try all the "gooeys" in the cookbook.
Im making this for Thanksgiving and the anticipation is killing me. Im THAT passionate about all types of deserts, and this one just SOUNDS awesome, I can imagine it will taste awesome as well. I mean, come on, with words like "Gooey" and "Butter" in the name, it has to be amazing.