If you know me, you know that I rarely venture into the territory of box-mixes – I just like cooking from scratch so much!
But see, there was this one French Butter Cake recipe that mom found years and years ago, back in the day when all us kids still lived at home.
And it. was. good. The whole family fell head over heals for it.
The butter, the gooey filling, the cake bottom. There wasn’t a crumb left after we finished with it – not a hard feat when you’re a family of ten, but still.
We loved it!
Of course, the whole recipe was created around the use of a box of yellow cake mix.
The advantage to that of course is that cake mix makes it all very fast and easy.
The disadvantage is that it’s hard to find a gluten-free cake mix that you can use cup for cup in a recipe like that.
Notwithstanding, I was in Walmart last week, and bought a Pillsbury cake mix – hey, somebody’s gotta do the research 😉 plus, you can save on Pillsbury with Ibotta so it’s not such a splurge.
And yesterday, I finally decided it was time to try. So with eyes squeezed shut and fingers crossed, I dumped my cake mix in, put it in the oven and (im)patiently waited the results.
Perfection on a plate.
While I’m usually a homemade cake mix fan, I have to say I loved how Pillsbury made it so easy to get the kids involved. “open it up and dump it in” is Garrett’s favorite kind of measuring method. 😉
It’s so fun how the kids want to be involved in everything we do. Even if it’s just holding a reflector so mommy can take pictures.
Although that may be because I promised him a bite afterward.
I like to think my kids will have the same kind of warm memories of helping mama bake in the kitchen, and the deliciousness of the fruit of our labors!
(P.S. Check out pillsbury’s collection of gluten-free recipes on Pinterest for more inspiration!)
Gluten-free French Butter Cake
Gluten-Free French Butter Cake
Ingredients
- Bottom layer:
- 1 Pillsbury Gluten-Free yellow Cake Mix
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 2 eggs
- Top layer:
- 1, 8oz. block of cream cheese, softened
- 2 eggs
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º
- Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together first three ingredients (cake mix, butter, and 2 eggs) until completely incorporated.
- In a second large bowl, combine remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.
- Press cake mix mixture into prepared baking dish.
- Pour cream cheese mixture on top, and spread evenly.
- Bake in center of the oven for 35-40 minutes, until cake no longer jiggles when moved (the toothpick test won't work on this cake!)
- Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Once cake is cool, cut into squares and serve.
- Store any leftovers in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Enjoy!
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I’m so confused- how can this be gluten-free if it uses a boxed cake mix?? Is it a gluten-free cake mix? It doesn’t state that on the recipe list.
Sorry about the confusion! I didn’t think to reiterate in the recipe card to use Pillsbury’s gluten-free cake mix since I’d stated that earlier in the post. I’m fixing it now though!
You call for a pan-and the picture shows a glass pan. Is that what I need to bake this cake in–or can I use a metal pan?
I’ve used both. Just remember that a metal pan will brown slightly quicker than glass.
Is there a yummy fruit topping that would go well with this? Or is it better to leave as is?
I think any kind of berries would work really well to help cut the richness of the cake. 🙂
My mom suggested a small spoonful of pie filling on top of each piece! I’m going to use cherry, blueberry and strawberry!
That’s a fabulous idea!
Hello! I love this recipe and it is actually one of the only desserts my non gluten-free friends and family enjoy. I was just wondering if there is a way to make it less sweet. I assume it is the top layer. I was wondering if it would be okay to use less powdered sugar or would that throw the topping off.
Glad you like it! 🙂 The topping may be slightly gooier if you use less sugar, but is that really a bad thing?
Really good! I loved how easy – and quick – this came together. I had most of the ingredients on hand. I added 1 teaspoon of almond extract with the vanilla, and might try some lemon zest next time. I’d love a little citrus kick.
This is defiantly going to be my “go to” for a quick and easy GF dessert.
*one older gal that ate it thought it was a little too sweet, I thought it was absolutely perfect. Not too sweet at all! To each her own I guess 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing – Glad you liked it!
My young son made this for a baking competition with very little help from me. He won first prize! Everyone devoured it!
Awesome! Tell him I said congratulations!
Can a regular cake mix be used to replace gluten free mix?
I picked up a regular cake mix, can I make adjustments to this recipe and still use the cake mix?
The gluten-free cake mix in this recipe is 17oz. As long as your traditional cake mix is equivalent to that, it should be fine. 🙂
thanks so much for the recipe, I am making it tomorrow. My Mom and Grandma have to be gluten free and this will be a great treat for them.
Thanks
This is known as Gooey Butter Cake in St. Louis and is hugely popular. Local bakeries make all kinds of flavors. I grew up on this. Ive never heard it called French. St. Louis was founded by the French, so maybe someone wanted to make it sound fancy.
Yeah, my mom used a recipe that called it “French Butter Cake” Since then, I’ve mostly heard it called “Gooey Butter Cake”, but I’m a stickler for family nostalgia I guess. 😛
This was so delicious !!! Made it for a gluten free friend and she said never tasted a dessert so yummy !
So glad you liked it!
You’ve nailed this recipe! Thank you so much. I’m a Philadelphia native and butter cake is practically a food group all its own. My family had one for every holiday when I was growing up. I’m in a women’s group at our church and this week our topic is to bring or make a food that we have a memory of … I went online searching for a gluten-free butter cake, found this, and made it tonight. Absolute perfection. Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing part of my childhood back to me this evening!
Yellow cake mix was not available, but they did have gluten free pilsbury funfetti mix. So i used that and it turned out great and was slightly festive. After reading some comments about the sweetness i decided to add the zest of one lemon and 1/8 tspn salt to the topping. Everybody loved it. Great recipe!
Yummy! I also couldn’t find the yellow cake mix so I used the funfetti mix and sifted the sprinkles out. Very tasty and easy!
Do you add 2 eggs o the batter and 2 to the cream cheese mix?
Yes, two eggs in each layer.
There is no recipe showing up here. Where is it listed?
OMGOMG, I just spent 1 hour looking for the recipe. where is it? I am so frustrated and close to tears. this would be perfect for my team member for her birthday.
Hi Sandi, Some people seem to be having trouble seeing the recipes when viewing on an iPad. We’re still trying to figure out what the bug is. But in the meantime, here’s the recipe: https://www.frugalfarmwife.com/article/gluten-free-french-butter-cake-2/cookbook-print/7548/
I got so many compliments on this cake!! Thank you! Question though, your directions said to bake for 35-40 minutes until the middle no longer jiggles. For me, the middle didn’t stop juggling until 50 minutes…The middle of the cake was still delicious but the edges were as hard as a rock…Did I bake it too long and a bit of jiggle is ok?
Hmm, It may be that your oven runs hotter than mine, so the edges are getting overdone before the middle does. So, you could try lowering the oven temp, or let the middle be a bit jiggly and see how it ends up once it’s cooled.
HAS anyone made this at high altitude?
Are their adjustments on the box?
I made this cake for a bridal shower that I hosted this last weekend- and it was by far the most commented-on dish at the party and everyone wanted me to send them the recipe! No one could believe that it was gluten-free either. I used King Arthur GF Yellow Cake Mix instead of Pillsbury (because that is what was sold at my grocery store)- the KA cake mix was 22 oz- so I just measured out 17 oz of it, to match the amount of mix in the recipe. It also took nearly 45 minutes to bake so that the interior wasn’t “jiggly” but the exterior was not overdone at all. Thank you so much for posting this! Sooooo delicious!