Philadelphia German Butter Cake Recipe

If you’ve ever wandered into a Philadelphia bakery, you’ve probably experienced the smell of freshly baked German Butter Cake: yeast, butter and sugar dusted with powdered sugar.

This dessert has a soft and fluffy base covered with a gooey, buttery topping, similar to a danish. Some compare it to St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake (cake mix version) and Missouri Gooey Butter Cake (from scratch)

Whether you’re baking for brunch, the holidays, or just because, this Philadelphia German butter cake is comfort on a plate.

This is a plan ahead dessert, the dough needs to rise for an hour before you coat it with the butter layer and bake it.

The base of the cake has to proof for at least an hour and while it's rising, you'll make the butter topping.

Jump to:

• Advice Before You Start this Recipe
• Special Ingredients Needed
• Make Philly Butter Cake Base
• Make butter layer while cake is proofing.
• Recipe Notes
• Pin to Save for Later
• Recipe
• Comments

Advice Before You Start this Recipe

There are two main steps to making German butter cake.

Make the yeast cake base, which has to proof for an hour.

While the cake is rising, make the butter topping.

Then you'll spread the butter layer on top and bake the cake.

Special Ingredients Needed

There are three ingredients you may not keep in your pantry:

• Yeast (active, dry, one packet)
• Superfine sugar (also known as caster sugar, you can make it yourself by blitzing granulated sugar in your food processor for 20 to 30 seconds.)
• Shortening (I use a half stick of Crisco)

Make Philly Butter Cake Base

Mix sugar, shortening, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add egg and beat 1 minute.

Stir yeast into warm milk. Add flour, milk/yeast mix, and vanilla to dough; mix 3 minutes. Knead briefly, cover with a linen cloth then let rise for 1 hour.

Divide dough into two 8-inch pans or one 9x13-inch pan. Press to fit and crimp edges. Prick with fork, 

Make butter topping and spread over the top with a rubber spatula or an offset spatula.

Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes. Topping should be crusty on top, gooey underneath. 

Cool cake before cutting.

Not sure what your dough should look like? Or how gooey the topping really gets?

Let me show you. The photos below walk you through it all.

Add the yeast, milk and flour and stir.

Make butter layer while cake is proofing.

Recipe Notes

If your dough doesn't rise, keep going. The cake will still be okay and delish just not as fluffy.

Working with Yeast

I unwittingly killed my yeast by overheating the milk. So my dough didn't double in size while proofing. But it still had that warm, bakery yeasty deliciousness.

Warm the milk to a temperature between 100°F and 110°F. Use a good thermometer to gauge how warm it is.

I use this digital thermometer and love it because it's quick, accurate and there's a light for my aging eyesight. (affiliate link)

Also, because I don't work with yeast very often I'm not sure about this but my house was pretty cool that day.

I had all the windows open and it was a 60F° degree day here with a strong wind.

I've always heard that you need a warm place to let baked goods proof.

But you'll make the cake the right because you'll heat your milk to the proper temperature--between 100°F and 110°F and the yeast will activate properly instead of overheating and dying.

Another mistake I made--I put the yeast in the bowl and poured the milk over the top. So most of the yeast granules ended up stuck to the bottom of the bowl.

Sprinkle the package of active dry yeast over the warm milk and whisk until dissolved.

Kneading the Dough

Choose between kneading by hand or using the dough hook in your stand mixer.

I chose the hook, which by some miracle I found with in just a few moments of searching even though I'd tucked it away in the back of my baking cabinet because I never use it.

The dough is easy to work with and you'll know it's done when it pulls away from the mixing bowl and clings to the hook.

You'll still need to turn the dough onto a floured board and knead it by hand for a minute after you're done with the dough hook before covering it with a cloth and letting it rise for an hour.

Butter Layer Notes

The butter layer uses superfine sugar, which is sometimes called extra fine sugar or caster sugar.

This has smaller sugar crystals than granulated sugar but not so fine as to be confectioner's sugar.

The smaller crystals dissolves more easily into cake batter or meringue batter than regular size granulated sugar crystals.

Brands sell superfine sugar but you can make your own by blitzing it in a food process for 30 or so seconds.

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