I love gooey butter cake and “Meet Me in St. Louis.” As I’m originally from the St. Louis area, which is known for its gooey butter cake, this pairing came pretty easy.

I went for a bit of a challenge on this one, opting to make this quintessential baked good both dairy-free and gluten-free.

Cake Ingredients
1 stick (4 ounces) vegan butter, softened
4 eggs
0.25 cups honey
1.75 cups 1-to-1 gluten-free flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder

Gooey Ingredients
1 8-ounce container of vegan cream cheese, softened
1 stick (4 ounces) vegan butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3.5 cups powdered sugar

Instructions
Grease a 9×13″ pan and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Start by putting the wet cake ingredients together. In a bowl or stand mixer, whip the butter, eggs and honey together.

Then add the flour and baking powder until a batter is formed. Pour the batter into the greased cake pan and smooth it out with a spatula so it is flat.

Bake the cake part on its own for 5 minutes while you make the gooey part.

Go back to the stand mixer and/or get another bowl to mix the remaining ingredients together. Beat the cream cheese until it is smooth, then add in the butter, eggs and vanilla.

Once the wet ingredients are evenly mixed, slowly add in the powdered sugar.

When your gooey topping batter is formed, carefully pull out your baking cake and pour the gooey mixture over the top, doing your best to make sure it remains even.

Bake the cake for another 30-45 minutes, or until the edges of the cake are golden brown. (I highly recommend using a glass pan so you can see the progress your cake is making.)

Let the cake cool for at least 15 minutes, then top with a dusting of powdered sugar. Slice and serve!

The Easy Route
It might be hard to track down a dairy-free and/or gluten-free slice of gooey butter cake, especially if you are outside of the St. Louis area. If you find a place that does this, please share it in the comments.

One way to make this easier would be using a boxed cake mix for the cake part of the recipe.

The Pairing
“Meet Me in St. Louis” is a movie I have to watch whenever it is presented to me.

Given that I’m from St. Louis, it might seem pretty typical, but I only really added this movie to my rotation after I moved away a little more than a decade ago.

Judy Garland is absolutely mesmerizing as Esther. She lives in St. Louis with her parents, Alonzo and Anna (Leon Ames and Mary Astor); her grandfather (Harry Davenport); her brother, Lon Jr. (Henry H. Daniels Jr.); and her sisters, Rose (Lucille Bremer), Agnes (Joan Carroll) and Tootie (Margaret O’Brien).

O’Brien steals absolutely every scene she’s in as the precocious Tootie, as does Davenport as the tender grandfather who would do anything for his grandchildren.

Tom Drake rounds out the cast as John Truett, the Smiths’ neighbor and a love interest for Esther.

The movie takes place at the start of the 1900s, just a few months before the World’s Fair is scheduled to arrive in St. Louis. The plot is basically a slice of life story about the Smith family.

A lyric from one of this musical’s songs, a duet between Mr. and Mrs. Smith: “Time goes by, but we’ll be together, you and I.”

Mr. Smith drops a bomb on the family at the end of an eventful Halloween when he announces that they’re moving from St. Louis to New York City after Christmas.

Like I said before, Garland solidifies her status as a movie musical icon with her dynamic performances of “Meet Me in St. Louis” and “The Trolley Song.”

And as the holiday season is upon us, I feel like it’s important to share that this movie gave the world my favorite Christmas song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

Garland shows her dramatic chops with scenes throughout the movie and this number in particular is movingly tender.

She is also remarkably funny in this movie, with one-liners including my favorite: “Personally, I think I have too much bloom.”

Under Vincente Minnelli’s direction, this movie strikes a perfect balance of drama and comedy, of tender moments and over-the-top musical productions.

I highly recommend adding it to your holiday movie lineup.

Let us know if you make gooey butter cake and/or watch “Meet Me in St. Louis!” Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes