Some desserts are made to be eaten while wearing a tight-waisted ballgown or a perfectly tailored little black dress. Light-as-air macarons or adorably tiny petits fours are the post-prandial choice of the sort of person who nibbles daintily, brushes crumbs away from still-lipsticked lips and declares, I couldnt eat another bite.

Gooey butter cake is not that kind of dessert.

In its birthplace of St. Louis, GBC is the sort of treat thats best enjoyed while wearing the roomiest sweatpants possible, preferably while standing at a kitchen counter (perhaps while still a bit hungover) or seated at a splintery picnic table at a swelteringly hot family reunion (perhaps while ankle-deep in chiggers , an essential part of the Missouri summer experience). It has never been and couldnt be even if it tried a dessert that puts on airs.

Its looks are unassuming, to put it kindly. In the traditional version, its served directly in its baking pan and covered with nothing more than a light dusting of powdered sugar. Yellow, flat and unadorned, it lacks height, depth and decoration. But take one bite and youll realize that, despite its humble looks, gooey butter cake will get you right in the feels: buttery, sweet, crunchy and creamy sensations come with each blissful bite.

If youve never eaten gooey butter cake, try to make do with this description until you can get to the nearest kitchen and start baking one on your own. First, theres the more-cake-than-crust bottom layer, with crispy, blondie-reminiscent corners that allow aficionados to choose their preferred eating experience soft and crumb-like on the sides, or with maximum crunchability at the corners. Once your perfect piece is cut and lifted from the pan, youll be nibbling your way through the topping, a custard-like culinary masterpiece thats sometimes created with corn syrup, butter and eggs, and, in updated versions, is often amped up in unctuousness with the addition of cream cheese.

Is this the most beautiful cake in the world? It is not. Is it one of the most surprisingly addictive? Yes it is, as evidenced by the fine citizens of this city on the Mississippi River, who serve it just about anywhere people might hanker for a sweet pick-me-up. Its sold from countertops at neighborhood bakeries on The Hill , hawked in stalls at the Soulard Farmers Market and served on fine china plates at chic suburban bistros , looking positively dainty for such a schlub-at-heart dish.

Was gooey butter cake an accident?

Thanks to its significant German immigrant population , St. Louis always had a plentiful supply of corner bars (serving up lots of beer, including Anheuser-Busch products, since the brewery was founded in south St. Louis). The only thing those early residents loved as much as beer was sweet baked goods, so the corners of St. Louis that werent occupied by taverns filled up with neighborhood bakeries . Lots of bakeries meant lots of competition, which led to increasing attempts to come up with new sweet treats that would keep customers streaming to your little corner of the world.

Although there are many versions and variations of the story, the basic legend goes like this: the first gooey butter cake most likely was made sometime in the 1930s at St. Louis Pastries Bakery. It was cooked up by baker John Hoffman , said Dale Schotte of Park Avenue Coffee. But Hoffman mistakenly reversed the proportions in his cake batter. With so little flour, the cake didnt rise, and with so much sugar, it was heavy, dense and caramelized around the crust. Hoffman named his mistake gooey butter cake. People loved it, and a bakery star was born.

Catherine Neville is the publisher of Feast , a regional culinary publication headquartered in St. Louis. Shes also producer and host of the PBS show tasteMAKERS . For her, the key to gooey butter cakes lasting popularity is its roots in home kitchens. Anyone who grew up in St. Louis remembers eating this cake, she told HuffPost.

Shes seen versions and discoveries of this cake from as far afield as Paula Deen and Bon Appetit magazine (which insists on tossing in an extra adjective and calling it ooey gooey ), but Neville says the best GBC always offers a perfect balance of sweetness and texture. In what is most likely the only time in history that this cake will be compared to an iconic French dish, Neville said, With that caramelized sugar on top, and the gooey part underneath, that textural difference makes it reminiscent of a perfect crme brle .

Every St. Louis family with even rudimentary gustatory inclinations will claim to have a secret family recipe for gooey butter cake, but it often turns out to be a no-big-deal version made from a box of yellow cake mix and a brick of cream cheese. So yes, you may love Mee Maws handed-down recipe above all others, but really, you can do better than that. HuffPost talked to three of the citys top GBC purveyors for tips on making an elevated home-baked version of this classic.

The Willy Wonka of GBC: Park Avenue Coffee