Baking Adventure #12

This week's baking adventure is true to typical form. It actually occurred on the weekend, wasn't late, AND turned out pretty daggon' good! It has been something I have been wanting to make since 2007 when it first touched the thousands of tastebuds on my tongue.

You see, my mom and I have a "normal" (I use that term loosely) obsession for Food Network, in particular Paula Deen. So for her 50th birthday I surprised her with two tickets to Paula's Show, Paula's Party, and a trip to Savannah, GA. We had a BLAST! The trip included a stay at a haunted Bed & Breakfast called the Marshall House, a day spent at Uncle Bubba's restaurant where the show was filmed (not to mention meeting the handsome Constantine Maroulis and Maureen McCormick, other wise known as Marsha Brady), walking the streets of Savannah in the rain, and a final meal at the Lady & Sons restaurant (Paula Deen and her sons, Jamie and Bobby's place).

We waited in line a little over an hour to make it for the lunch rush. We both ordered the buffet which included fried chicken, mac 'n cheese, cornbread, collard greens, and 3 kinds of desserts. That meal left us beyond full and satisfied. One problem, ever since, I have been craving one of the three desserts, which leads to this week's baking adventure...

Gooey Butter Cake!

If you have ever been to the Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah, you know what I'm talking about with these things. Even my mom, who doesn't like sweets, LOVED these. Since it had been a few weeks since I had truly baked something scrumptious and had to hit up the grocery anyway, I decided this Pint-Size Baking Blog was WAY PAST DUE for some Gooey Butter Cakes.

Now this recipe holds true to its name, as you will below see when PREPping the ingredients.

I melted the butter in the microwave and combined with the egg and yellow cake mix. [Side note: using cake mix is sac-religious for my baking passion. It was really stifle to swallow my "from scratch" only motto, but boy am I glad I did!] One thing to note with melting the butter, let it cool a little bit before combining with egg, as you might cook the egg on accident.

After the crust mixture is combined, pat the dough into the bottom of the baking dish while making sure it goes up the sides as well. The recipe online doesn't explicitly say to do this, but I HIGHLY recommend in order to keep the filling in its place after baking.

FILLING: The filling is super delicious. I dare you not to lick the bowl after pouring into the crust in the baking dish! ONE CHANGE I did make to this otherwise perfect recipe is to cut the sugar in half. Paula Deen is notorious for super sweet and super buttery dishes. Instead of 16 oz. (One 1 lb. box) of Confectioners Sugar, I used 8 ozs. (half the box) which was PLENTY for this sweet tooth! Next time, I'll probably use 6 tablespoons of butter filling instead of 8.

Once the filling is blended to a smooth texture, pour it into the baking dish and spread evenly.

Then bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes (The recipe says 40-50 but err on the side of more gooey. You can always bake longer if under-cooked but not vice versa.)

After baking, let cool about 10-15 minutes and serve!

WARNING: Little by little this Gooey Butter Cake will mysteriously disappear when you're not looking!

And there you have it! Sorry I was MIA for so long. I sure did miss you guys (all three of you). Hope you are having a wonderful start to 2010!!! Big things are in store for this year. I can feel it! :-)

<3,

Pint-Size Baker