Classic St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake vs Éclair

Both desserts lean on butter, eggs and sugar, yet they arrive at very different textures. The St. Louis gooey butter cake presses a buttery flour-and-egg base into a pan beneath a topping of cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar, baked until the edges turn golden while the center stays soft and gooey. The éclair instead beats eggs into a boiled butter-and-flour dough, piping and baking it into puffed, firm shells. Here powdered sugar sweetens a whipped vanilla cream filling, and each top is dipped in melted dark chocolate.