Strawberry Gooey Butter Cake
A crispy-edged yellow cake topped with a thin cream cheese gooey layer and a tart lemony strawberry swirl that tames the cloying sweetness of the classic.
As a St. Louis native, I have distinct memories of the gooey butter cake of my childhood: It was two-layered, with a yellow cake on the bottom and a gooey sugar topping that somehow got all craggily crispy on the top. While this cake was usually bought from the grocery store, even our homemade versions started with a yellow cake mix base and ended with that same cream cheese and powdered sugar topping. Of the many (many) gooey butter cakes I've eaten, the one consistency is that they were always cloyingly sweet. In my take on the beloved classic, a lemony strawberry swirl offsets the sweetness. To keep it balanced, the gooey layer is thinner than what's traditional, making it more like a frosting than half of the cake. The result is a two-layer, crispy-edged cake with just the right amount of sweet and tart.