Classic St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake vs Prinzregententorte (Bavarian Layer Cake)

Both cakes lean on butter, sugar, eggs and milk, but they put them to very different work. The Gooey Butter Cake uses melted butter in a pressed flour-and-egg base, then adds a cream cheese, vanilla and powdered-sugar topping that bakes until the edges turn golden while the center stays slightly gooey. The Prinzregententorte creams its butter twice: into thin cocoa sponge layers and into a buttercream built on a cooked milk-and-yolk pudding. With apricot jam and a glossy dark chocolate glaze, it is layered and chocolate-rich where the other is soft and sweet.