Chocolate Almond Gooey Buttercake

Hi all!
About a month ago I put up my traditional gooey butter cake recipe and it seems it was very well received so I thought I'd share my unique twist on this wonderful St. Louis tradition. This recipe came about after my dear friend Curtis said, "You know, what would be better than gooey butter cake? CHOCOLATE GOOEY BUTTER CAKE," and you know what? He was right! So here is my original Chocolate Almond Gooey Butter Cake recipe.

Chocolate Almond Gooey Butter Cake

Ingredients:

1 box of devil's food cake mix

1 stick of butter (softened)

4 eggs

1 8oz block of cream cheese (low fat is OK)

1 c. + 1 Tbs coco powder

3/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

3 c. + 2 Tbs powdered sugar

1 tsp. Almond Extract (optional)

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

All the ingredients you need to make chocolate crack except the almond and vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to 350F

Mix butter, 1 egg and cake mix

Crumbly chocolaty goodness!

Spray a pan down with Pam/cooking spray and press the cake mix "crust" into the bottom of the pan

If you wet your hand a bit the crust won't stick as badly to it, if your hands look like this, you're doing it right!

Mix together cream cheese, and 2 eggs

Add in 1 c. coco powder and mix well

Umm, this came out a bit drier than I expected. Lets see what happens when I add chocolate...

Melt 3/4 c. of chocolate chips in the microwave (Two 30 second bursts with stirring in between should do it ) and add to batter.

Melted chocolate... YUM!

Chocolate added to the batter

Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and the last egg

This is where I thought "Oh crap! I need another egg, this isn't enough like batter!" so I added another egg (the third egg to go into the batter)

Add in the 1 tsp of almond extract and 1 tsp of vanilla extract (the vanilla helps bring out the rich flavor of the chocolate!)

Spread batter over the top of the cake mix crust

This is what the batter looks like after everything has been mixed in. Its very thick.

Ready to put in the oven!

Bake 350F for 40 minutes

It should have a crust on the top, but your toothpick will not come out clean. Its GOOEY butter cake, remember?

Allow cake to cool and then mix together the last 2 Tbs of powdered sugar and 1 Tbs of coco powder

Sift the mixture over the cooled cake and prepare to make your mouth and tummy happier than it has been in a LONG time.

I brought this cake to a 5k race that was held at a vineyard (no I didn't run, but I helped feed the runners) and fed it to a bunch of people I had never met, along with a few I knew. The responses to this cake were: "Oh my God!" "This is like crack!" "It tastes like a truffle!" and many "mmmm!" or "Yum"s. So I'd say it went over well. This is one of the most tried an true crowd pleasers in my repertoire, and it is just as addictive as crack. Who doesn't love nearly a pound of sugar in one little cake? Its like chowing down on a chocolaty pixie stick and provides a similar sugar high and euphoric feelings. Also since its full of dark chocolate I think we can classify it as health food (if you forget about the sugar, butter, cream cheese, and all the eggs...). Enjoy this recipe, revel in the chocolaty goodness and let me know if you like it!

Happy Eating!