Classic St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake vs Turkish Profiteroles

Both desserts lean on butter, eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla, but they put them to very different work. The gooey butter cake is a single baked slab: a pressed buttery base under a cream cheese and powdered sugar topping that sets at the edges yet stays soft and gooey in the center, rich and tangy-sweet. The profiteroles split the same staples into parts: eggs beaten into choux puffs baked golden, milk cooked into a vanilla pastry cream lightened with whipped cream, and a warm cocoa sauce drizzled over the top.