Bread and Butter Pudding vs Classic St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake

Both desserts share butter, eggs, sugar, milk and vanilla, yet put them to very different work. In the bread and butter pudding, eggs, milk, cream, sugar and vanilla form a custard that soaks layers of buttered stale bread and raisins, baking up golden and puffed with a creamy, slightly wobbly centre and a warm hint of nutmeg. The gooey butter cake uses melted butter twice, in a pressed flour base and in a rich cream cheese and powdered sugar topping that bakes set yet gooey. One is soft and custardy; the other dense, sweet and indulgent.