Gooey Butter Cake

Paula Deen has a recipe for Gooey Butter Cakes that is delicious and can be easily modified to fit anybody's personal dessert tastes. The basic recipe involves a crust made of cake mix, eggs and butter. The filling calls for cream cheese, eggs, vanilla and other common cake-like ingredients. In the filling, the addition of one special mix-in makes this dessert so versatile -- you can add pineapple, pumpkin, peanut butter, or some other treat. The cake mix and the filling can be mixed up to create a variety of different desserts. Chocolate cake mix in the crust and peanut butter in the filling make a peanut butter cup dessert. Yellow cake mix in the crust and pineapple in the filling make lighter dessert.

Keeping with the time of year, the following is the recipe for Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. It's definitely one of my favorites.

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Cake:
1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling: 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Variations:
For a Pineapple Gooey Cake: Instead of the pumpkin, add a drained 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple to the cream cheese filling. Proceed as directed above.

For a Banana Gooey Cake: Prepare cream cheese filling as directed, beating in 2 ripe bananas instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.

For a Peanut Butter Gooey Cake: Use a chocolate cake mix. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter to the cream cheese filling instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.

Paula Deen, Paula's Home Cooking, Food Network