A Dreamy French Vanilla Gooey Butter Cake Recipe (with Strawberries)

Updated June 2024 :: Today, I’m paying homage to the St. Louis style Gooey Butter cake with my own French Vanilla Gooey Butter Cake, made even better by doubling down on some sweet strawberry goodness. Keeping very much in line with my newest cookbook, Homemade-ish (which is set to launch on July 30, 2024), this lovely vanilla gooey butter cake is not some totally scratch-made thing. Nope, it’s a doctored up cake mix recipe, and it’s completely fantastic. Read on for a little more about gooey butter cakes (if you’re interested), or just jump ahead to the recipe!

What is Gooey Butter Cake?

Gooey Butter Cake, which may or may not have originated in St. Louis, is actually a two-layered almost bar-like thing built on a crust made from doctored up boxed cake mix. Yep. Cake mix. Now, I almost always make my cakes from scratch (because it’s better by a MILE!), but I am also not one to just smack tradition in the face. Who am I to tell this gooey butter cake what to do? Who to be?

We’re not doing that today. Today, we’re keeping things just as they’re meant to be.

Vanilla Gooey Butter Cake: The Crust

The crust, or bottom of the two layers, is simply a boxed cake mix (here, French Vanilla), mixed together with an egg and a stick of melted butter. You’ll press this cookie dough-like mixture into your pan and then pour a luscious, creamy filling down over top before sending it all into the oven for a good long while (longer than you might expect). You can really play with the flavors of your crust, if you want … chocolate, butter pecan (this is actually SO SO good), golden, red velvet … you get the idea.

But today, I wanted to play up the vanilla aspect of this cake and just go really big in that department. So, I reached for the French Vanilla cake mix, which you can find in any supermarket, and it worked beautifully. Honestly, if you didn’t know any better, you might think you were enjoying something from a fancy French patisserie. Just saying …

Vanilla Gooey Butter Cake: The Filling

Speaking of fancy and French, I did want to mention the vanilla bean paste that I’ve included in my ingredients list here. I’ve noticed it hanging out in the baking aisle of my normal supermarkets recently, so I think it’s getting much easier to find. It is simply vanilla bean seeds – lots of them – suspended in a sweet liquid, and it lends the absolute BEST vanilla flavor to whatever you add it to.

I love using it in my baking, but it’s fantastic in cocktails and breakfast recipes too, like pancakes, waffles, and French toast custard. That said, if you cannot find it or don’t feel like buying it, just use vanilla extract. It will still be delicious! No harm, no foul.

The filling here is just some whipped cream cheese, eggs, powdered sugar (I call for a little less than a typical vanilla gooey butter cake, as I frankly think it’s better that way), the vanilla bean paste, and another stick of melted butter.

You’ll feel like a downright sinner when you indulge in this French Vanilla Gooey Butter cake, but in the best possible way. This is decadence. This is treating yourself. So you go right ahead and do that … (and let me know what you think!)

How to make this St. Louis Style French Vanilla Gooey Butter Cake

This vanilla gooey butter cake is a doctored up cake mix kind of cake – it’s not made totally from scratch. So, you know it’s going to be easy and quick to throw together (thus its big appeal, right?). We’ll use a standard cake pan, either round or square is just fine. The cake consists of two layers, essentially. The “French Vanilla” base layer and the cream cheese/egg/butter/strawberry jam filling.

The two distinct layers will bake together into one truly delicious cake that you’ll have a hard time keeping your hands off of. But it’s fine! That’s the whole point.

Vanilla Gooey Butter Cake DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Adjust the rack to the middle position. Butter a 9-inch cake pan or spring-form pan (can be round or square).
2. In a medium bowl, combine the cake mix, one of the eggs, and one stick of melted butter. Stir until well-mixed and press this mixture into the bottom of the pan and up the sides a bit. 
3. Beat the cream cheese until soft and add the two remaining eggs, the last stick of melted butter, the vanilla bean paste, and the 1.5 cups confectioner’s sugar. Whip just until smooth. 
4. Swirl in the jam and fold in about a cup of the berries. Pour this into the pan, on top of the French Vanilla crust. Bake until just set in the center; about 50 to 55 minutes. If the top starts to get too brown before the middle is set, simply lay a sheet of foil over top. This will slow the browning significantly.
5. Allow the cake to cool before slicing. Cover with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar and serve with extra sliced berries, if desired. 

If you like the looks of these French Vanilla Gooey Butter Cake with Strawberries, you might want to try:

The Ultimate Southern Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake

Beachy Peach Pie

Lemon Meringue Chess Pie

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies

Black Pepper and Bourbon Pumpkin Pie with Whipped White Chocolate

Berry Crumble Picnic Cake

Berry Coconut Ruffled Milk Pie

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