Mexican Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake

[mhalbrook]

Okay, this is the "Wimp's Version" with low heat.

Base:
1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (If making from scratch, about 18.25 oz cake mix)
1 Egg
4 oz Melted Butter

Filling
16 oz Powdered Sugar
5 Tbs Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp Chilie Powder (Sorry, don't know which chili it is)
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
8 oz Cream Cheese
2 Eggs
4 oz melted butter

Mix first crust together and press in to the bottom of a 9x13 rectangle, 10" round or 11" tart pan.

Combine first four filling ingredents in a bowl and whisk to combine
Beat Cream Cheese until smooth and add in dry mixture. Mix on slow and add in eggs & butter. and mix until smooth, scraping down the sides occasionally

Pour filling over crust and bake at 300 for 45 minutes. Remove and allow to cool fully before attempting to cut, this is not an eat it hot cake

Comes out good, just a hint of heat on the end, if you like it hotter, then you'll want a hotter powerd and/or more.

[icntdrive55]

this sounds like a great recipe. Being from St. Louis, I just love gooey butter cake. I cant wait to try it.

[mhalbrook]

this sounds like a great recipe. Being from St. Louis, I just love gooey butter cake. I cant wait to try it.

Not the same animal. The St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake is more of a coffee cake, a yeast raised thing, This is not the same, but it's still good.

[LinC]

This sounds great! I think the chili powder would help cut the sweetness. Paula Deen would roll her eyes and squeal in amazement.

[mhalbrook]

This sounds great! I think the chili powder would help cut the sweetness. Paula Deen would roll her eyes and squeal in amazement.

The chili powder does cu the sweetness somewhat, and the little hit of minor heat is a nice gotcha for people. After watching either ATK or Cooks Country where they made brownies and talked about blooming the cocoa powder in the butter for extra flavor, It dawned on me that both the chilie and the cocoa would benefit from the same treatment, so for all my cakes I do that use a spice blend in them (This one, the pumpkin one and the spiced pecan and sauteed pears) I mix the spices and/or cocoa in while melting the butter, and the flavor increase greatly. In fact, when I tried that with this cake, I actuall used less cocoa, and it had more chocolate flavor.

As far as cutting the sweetness level, I've not tried it but I've been thinking, would replacing some of the powdered sugar with corn starch be effective? I mean corn starch is used in the powdered sugar. I'd think it'd cut the sweetness, but it'd likely change the gooey nature as well, by setting it up firmer, which may not be a totally bad thing. Thoughts on that anyone? I may try it the next itme I make one just for fun. If all goes well, I'll have another new recipe next week too. Gonna play with a butter pecan one. In addition to sauteeing the pecans in butter, I'm thinking slightly brown the butter for the filling and maybe adding butter flavoring?