As I’m sure you’ve read in the recent October/November issue of Taste of Home magazine, I’ve been searching for the Great Pumpkin. Well, I’ve found him!
Read below for an in-depth look at my trip to St. Louis, Missouri, and the tasty discovery I made.
When I first found out I was going on a search for the Great Pumpkin in my hometown of St. Louis, I was excited. So many tasty treats to try!
My first stop was at Gooey Louie Butter Cake, which has become a St. Louis staple. Debbie Steiferman, owner and head baker at Gooey Louie, welcomed me to her shop with a huge smile and 5 boxes of butter cake. I was in heaven!
The whole place smelled like butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar, which just so happen to be the main ingredients in this decadent treat.
“I used to make butter cakes with my Mom. They were so good when we made them at home. I like the home-style mix with the cream cheese and confectioner’s sugar,” Debbie said.
It’s the home-style mix that’s the secret to Gooey Louie’s 13 different flavors of butter cake. And let me tell you, they’re all incredibly delicious. Just watching the bakers mix the butter and cream cheese together was enough to make my mouth water.
“The original is the best cake,” Debbie told me as she sprinkled powdered sugar over some freshly baked cakes. “It’s what we’ve perfected. But my favorites are the Key Lime and Turtle flavors.”
When it comes to Gooey Louie’s pumpkin butter cake, it’s all about the perfect blend of spices.
“We start with the original recipe. We experimented with a spice crust, but decided to keep the original and make the ‘goo’ pumpkin,” Debbie said. “Too much spice takes away from the original flavor.” To get that rich pumpkin flavor, Debbie and her team blend together classic fall spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and, of course, pumpkin.
While these warm, rich, and buttery treats smell and taste amazing, they aren’t always the prettiest things to look at. That’s where the powdered sugar comes in.
“You gotta have powdered sugar on your gooey butter cake, but that wouldn’t look right on your pumpkin. So, we made a confectioner’s sugar spice blend to dust over our pumpkin cake.”
Before I left Gooey Louie to continue my Great Pumpkin search, Debbie let me dust some powdered sugar over a few cakes.
I brought some extra butter cake back to Milwaukee. My co-workers were happy to have tasted a bit of the Great Pumpkin, too.
Read on to learn more about my search for the Great Pumpkin
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This is such an interesting and taste good recipe story. I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you for sharing it.
I want to know how can you purchase some of those delicious looking cakes
Are you referring to the Gooey Butter Cakes? You can order them from the Gooey Louie website : http://www.gooeylouiecake.com/
They’re so good! Enjoy!
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