I recently spent the weekend with dear friends in St Louis and was fortunate that I was introduced to tons of St Louis local favorites.  Gooey Butter Cake is a true dessert staple to locals and here’s a cookie version kindly provided by St Louis cooking maven, Chris Absheer (here with cutie grandson, Mikey).  Seriously, with that name, who can resist these cookies – plus, they’re super simple to prepare!

Ingredients:

• 1 -8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 -18.5 ounce package yellow cake mix
• 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl cream together the cream cheese and the butter. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Add cake mix, stir until well blended.
3. Form dough into 1-inch balls (should yield 24 balls).  Place the confectioners’ sugar in a shallow dish then roll the balls to coat them in sugar.
4. Place balls 1-inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 10-13 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove cookies from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then cool completely on wire rack.

Makes 24 cookies.