Small Group Dish of the Week

 This week's dish for Bill and Sandra's small group came out of necessity - I forgot to plan something before I went to the grocery store for supplies. I had to scour my cabinets, see what I had, and make something out of what was handy. I'd grabbed some cream cheese while it was on sale a few weeks ago and had a good supply of butter, so I decided to prepare a gooey butter cake.  Despite having one of the dumbest (yet most accurate) names for a dessert ever conceived, the gooey butter cake is decadent, creamy, rich, and completely delicious. It's also really easy. The "crust" is made from a basic yellow cake batter. There's no reason to waste your time here - just go buy a box of yellow cake mix and save 30 minutes. I'd also recommend letting your sticks of butter and cream cheese sit at room temperature for 45 minutes or so - this will soften them enough to mix smoothly. Remember to keep a close eye on the cake while it's cooking. The crust should set up, but the middle should still be gooey (hence the name), much like a custard. This cake can be served after an hour of cooling, but I like to let it set up overnight and serve it at room temperature. By the way - no calorie-cutting stunts here, please. It's not called gooey margarine cake or gooey I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Butter cake.  Look on the bright side....butter doesn't have all those hydrogenated oils and trans-fatty acids that fill butter substitutes and cause heart disease.  So...an extra notch on the belt or triple bypass?  You decide.

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen, Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

• For crust:
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• For Filling:
• 1 8oz pgk cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup (1stick) butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
  
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 16 oz confectioner's sugar
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cake mix, egg, and butter in a large bowl and beat on medium until combined. Butter a 9x13 pan and press cake batter into pan to form a crust. Set aside. Combine cream cheese, butter, and eggs in bowl and mix until smooth. Work in vanilla and confectioner's sugar, mix until completely combined. Spread filling onto crust and bake for 40 minutes. Turn off oven, crack oven door, and let cake cool in oven for 5 minutes. Remove cake to cooling rack and allow to cool for at least an hour or overnight. Cut into squares and serve.