Gluten Free "Gooey Butter Cake"

Gooey Butter Cake... the name says it all!

Surprisingly, despite my love of butter and cream and all things yummy I've never thought about checking out Paula Deen's recipes before.  This past Saturday, one of my friends came over and we had a girl's day out with shopping, lunch, and some baking.  She brought Paula Deen's recipe for Gooey Butter cake and naturally we made our version gluten free.

I'm thinking that the gluten free version is even tastier and more decadent than her original because Paula uses a box of cake mix and we used the dry ingredients from a scratch-made yellow cake recipe (from the classic Better Homes and Gardens checkerboard cookbook).  In my opinion, buying a gluten free cake mix is a good waste of money... they're around $4 a box and typically makes just one layer of cake.  That's a lot considering that there's not much in boxed mixes besides flour, baking powder, and xanthan gum.  There's nothing mysterious or hard to make about it!

You can find Paula Deen's original recipe all over the internet, so I'll just share my gluten free adaptation.

preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Crust:
2 1/2 cups gluten free flour (I used the 4 Flour Bean Mix from Bette Hagman's cookbooks)
1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
2 1/2 tsp banking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c sugar
1 egg
1 stick butter, melted

Combine and mix well with an electric mixer.  Grease a 9x13 baking pan and pat the mixture into the bottom of the pan using wax paper.

Filling:
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter, melted
1 16 ounce box powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese until smooth.  Add eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together.  Slowly add powdered sugar and mix well.  Spread over the crust and bake for 40-50 minutes.  The cake should be a little gooey in the center, make sure not to overbake.  It turns out more like a bar cookie than a cake.

We ran a knife around the edge after we took the pan out of the oven.  It was hard not to sample immediately!  After about 20 minutes we dove in...  and it was deliciously gooey and warm!  Paula's recipe calls for it to serve 6-8, but I'm pretty sure that it should be thought of as more like 16 servings!  It's so rich that I think if you really ate a sixth of the pan, you'd get ill!

mmm... just look at that buttery flaky crust!