Both sides of my family have lived in St. Louis for at least 5 generations. I grew up in and around St. Louis – which happens to be a largely underrated food city. I know that I have some strong biases in this matter but we are becoming better known across the midwest US for our unique foods – we even have a Michelin starred restaurant now! St. Louis was also the site of the 1904 world’s fair and we are still super proud of that over 100 years later. That pride mostly stems from the fact that a lot of iconic American food items came out of the fair that year including ice cream cones and hot dogs! This is all to say that St. Louis does have a rich food culture that I think deserves more attention.
Some iconic foods that hail from my beautiful home city include pork steaks, toasted raviolis, and gooey butter cake. The last is what we are going to make here. I have seen iterations of all of these popping up in the mainstream cooking media, which makes me incredibly proud. These are staples of St. Louis that serve as my comfort food when I am away. Despite the interference of being mostly plant based and gluten free, I have found ways to still enjoy my local favorites (or at least the 2 non-meat centric ones).
For those of you who don’t know what gooey butter cake is – first, I am sorry. Second, it has a base that is somewhere between a crumb cake and a short bread with a topping that is effectively a very sugary and buttery custard. It’s kind of like a lemon-less lemon bar.
It took me a long time to figure this recipe out – over a year in fact – but I have finally nailed it and I am beaming. This year I made it for my birthday and it was perfection. That in mind the recipe does have a few caveats:
- I encourage you to always use softened butter for gooey butter cake. It is the best way to get the proper consistency for the both the base and the custard
- One 16 oz pack of silken/soft tofu ought to do the trick for this recipe. This will need to be pureed in a blender or food processor.
- This takes longer to bake than a non-vegan one as the tofu will take a while to set – you’ll need your oven for ~ 1 to 1.5 hrs
- You can use a store bought GF cake mix – just make sure it is vegan if you need to
- Any sort of starch can be used but I find corn to work best
- You can add fun mixins to change the flavor up a bit. I have done pumpkin and chocolate and have always dreamed of a PBJ version
But enough of the rules, onto the recipe!
Ingredients
Base
- 1.5 cups GF baking flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1 tbsp. corn starch
- 1/2 cup pureed silken tofu
- 1 tbsp. flax seeds
- 1/2 cup vegan butter – softened
- 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
“Gooey” topping
- 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
- 1 cup tofu
- 1 8oz container vegan cream cheese (Tofutti works well)
- 2 cups powdered sugaar
- 1/4 cup vegan butter – softened
- 2 tbsp. corn starch
Instructions
- Remove vegan butter from fridge to soften, preheat oven to 350 F, and grease a 9x 13 baking dish
- Puree 16oz container of silken tofu in a food processor until creamy. Remove 1/2 cup and combine with 1 tbsp. flaxseed and set aside.
- Combine cake mix ingredients (GF flour, sugar, almond flour, baking powder, salt, and corn starch) into a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine
- Once the flax/tofu mixture has set add this, the base butter, and vanilla to the cake mix. Use a hand mixer to combine until it comes together like a crumbly cookie dough. Press this mixture into the bottom of the baking dish in an even layer that meets the edge.
- Combine all of the topping ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat with a hand mixer until combined. You should have a thick custard like mixture. Pour this on top of the base and spread evenly
- Place the cake in the oven for 40 minute on the bottom rack – then move to the top rack for an additional 20 minutes. If the cake does not seem set after the hour put it back in for an additional 10 to 15 (this is just going to vary between ovens)
- Once the cake is set remove it from the oven and allow to cool. Dust with powdered sugar and place in the microwave to chill before serving.
Enjoy!
Green and Gluten Free 