Dolly Parton Gooey Butter Cake

Make this easy Dolly Parton gooey butter cake with yellow cake mix, cream cheese, and butter for a rich Southern dessert everyone will love.

This Dolly Parton Gooey Butter Cake starts with Dolly’s yellow cake mix and turns it into a thick, buttery cake base topped with an incredibly soft, rich cream cheese layer. It’s an easy cake-mix version of the classic gooey butter cake—and after baking with Dolly’s yellow cake mix for the first time, I have a whole lot to say about that box.

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene...

I've always wondered what Dolly could have done to convince that beautiful auburn-haired woman not to take her man.

Turns out, she just needed a pan of Gooey Butter Cake.

She can have the flaming locks of auburn hair, the ivory skin, and those eyes of emerald green.

Dolly brought dessert.

Jolene...who?

Why I'm Calling This "Dolly Parton Gooey Butter Cake"

Throughout this series, I'm not simply putting Dolly's name in front of recipes because I'm using her cake mixes.

I want to actually bake with the mixes, review them, and tell you what I notice about them—how they look, how they behave in recipes, how they taste, and whether I would use them again. And this yellow cake mix gave me plenty to talk about.

I've been baking with boxed cake mixes for more years than I care to count. I've doctored them, turned them into cookies and bars, used them for elaborate cakes, and built a good portion of this website around teaching people what else they can do with a simple box of cake mix.

So I thought I knew yellow cake mix.

Then I opened Dolly's.

My Review of Dolly Parton's Yellow Cake Mix

The first thing I noticed was the color. Or maybe I should say the lack of color.

A lot of yellow cake mixes are really yellow. You know the ones. You open the bag and there's no question what kind of cake you're making.

Dolly's mix was different. The dry mix was surprisingly pale—more ivory or cream than yellow—and it looked much more natural to me.

Then I noticed the texture. That might have surprised me even more.

Some yellow cake mixes have a slightly coarse or grainy appearance. Dolly's was incredibly fine and light. I actually stopped what I was doing and took a close-up picture because the difference was so noticeable.

It almost reminded me of powdered sugar.

Once I added the melted butter and one egg for the bottom layer of this Gooey Butter Cake, the mixture developed the prettiest soft yellow color. It looked buttery and golden without looking artificially bright.

And then there was the flavor.

Dolly Wasn't Kidding About the Flavor

There's a little blurb from Dolly on the box talking about the rich, buttery flavor of her yellow cake. She's not kidding.

This was my first time baking with Dolly Parton's yellow cake mix, and I was so impressed with it that I immediately started thinking about all the other recipes where I could use it.

The flavor was remarkably homemade. In fact, based on this first experience, I can easily see myself reaching for Dolly's mix whenever I need a basic yellow cake mix.

And that's saying something coming from a woman who spends an awful lot of time turning boxed cake mixes into other things.

I'm saving my other box for a Sock It to Me Cake, and I'm particularly interested in seeing how this mix performs when it's allowed to be an actual cake.

For this recipe, however, I turned it into something completely different.

What Is Gooey Butter Cake?

Here's a confession: I've baked a ridiculous number of things in my lifetime, but somehow I had never made Gooey Butter Cake. So I was learning right along with this recipe.

The traditional St. Louis dessert and the easy cake-mix version aren't quite the same thing. The popular cake-mix version starts with a very thick mixture of yellow cake mix, melted butter, and an egg.

That mixture is pressed into the bottom of the baking dish almost like a crust.

Then comes the gooey layer: cream cheese, eggs, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

And that's where things got really interesting.

That Gooey Cream Cheese Layer!

I've made plenty of cake-mix bars over the years, so the bottom layer of this recipe felt familiar to me. The topping did not.

Many of the bars I make have toppings involving cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk. This was a completely different experience.

As I beat together the cream cheese, eggs, melted butter, powdered sugar, and a generous amount of vanilla, the mixture became unbelievably light and fluffy.

The best word I can think of is velvet. It was silky, pale, almost cloudlike, and absolutely luscious-looking.

I remember standing over the bowl thinking, What on earth is this going to do in the oven?

And considering how much I've baked over the years, it was actually pretty fun not knowing.

Is Gooey Butter Cake Really a Cake?

This confused me at first, too. When I pressed that thick yellow cake-mix mixture into the bottom of my casserole dish, everything about it said bar to me. It felt like the cake-mix bases I've used for countless other bar recipes.

Then I added that enormous layer of fluffy cream cheese filling and put the whole thing into the oven. And suddenly, cake made more sense.

The filling puffed beautifully. The edges rose and turned golden, while the center developed a firm-looking baked surface with a softer, jiggly layer underneath. It's almost shuffle-like, honestly.

This isn't a conventional layer cake, of course. You'll cut it into squares for serving. But especially with the lovely height of mine, I'm perfectly happy calling it cake.

Dolly Parton Gooey Butter Cake it is.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

This is a remarkably easy dessert for something that looks and tastes so decadent.

The bottom layer requires just three ingredients. The cream cheese topping comes together in one bowl. There's no frosting to make afterward and no decorating involved.

It's also a terrific make-ahead dessert because the cake needs plenty of cooling time before cutting.

And, of course, there's that Dolly Parton yellow cake mix underneath it all, adding a rich buttery flavor that really impressed me.

Ingredients

You will find a full printable recipe card at the bottom of this post but here's a quick look at what you're going to need to make this delicious cake. These are such simple ingredients. And if you absolutely cannot find a Dolly Parton yellow cake mix just use the brand of your choice.

For the Cake-Mix Base

• 1 box Dolly Parton yellow cake mix
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 large egg

For the Gooey Cream Cheese Layer

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 3½ cups powdered sugar
• 1½–2 teaspoons vanilla extract

You'll find a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.

How to Make Dolly Parton Gooey Butter Cake

Prepare the Pan

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Prepare a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick baking spray. I used a deep casserole dish with flared sides. It measured approximately 9x14 inches across the top and about 7x11 inches at the narrower bottom. Because of its shape, my finished cake was fairly thick.

A standard 9x13-inch baking dish should work beautifully. Because pan shapes and depths vary, pay more attention to the appearance of your cake than to the clock.

Make the Bottom Layer

Place the Dolly Parton yellow cake mix into a large mixing bowl. Add the melted butter and one egg. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Don't expect cake batter. This mixture will be very thick—more like a soft dough. Press it evenly into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.

And take a moment to notice that color. Once the egg and butter hit that pale cake mix, mine turned the prettiest soft buttery yellow.

Make the Gooey Layer

Place the softened cream cheese into a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add the two eggs and mix well. Add the melted butter and vanilla. Gradually beat in 3½ cups powdered sugar.

Continue mixing until everything is smooth and well incorporated. Mine became extraordinarily light, fluffy, and silky at this stage.

Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the cake-mix base.

Bake

Place the cake into the preheated 350°F oven. Mine baked for exactly 40 minutes in my deep, flared casserole dish. If you're using a standard 9x13-inch pan, I suggest beginning to check it around 35 minutes.

Here's the important part: Do not wait for the center to become completely firm.

The surface should look baked and set, and the edges should be slightly golden. When you gently move the pan, however, you should still be able to detect some softness or jiggle underneath the center.

That's what we want. It's called Gooey Butter Cake for a reason.

Mine looked quite firm across the surface at the 40-minute mark, but I could feel that the center underneath was still softer.

I pulled it.

Resist the urge to keep baking until that softness disappears. You don't want to bake the gooey out of your Gooey Butter Cake.

My Gooey Butter Cake Cracked! What Happened?

Nothing went wrong. In fact, mine started developing little cracks almost immediately. The cream cheese filling puffs as it bakes and then settles as the cake cools. As that happens, the baked surface can wrinkle and crack.

Let it.

Don't press it down. Don't try to smooth it. And don't assume you've done something wrong.

And, hey. . .somebody in this recipe has to crack.

Dolly never did. Through decades in the spotlight, she somehow maintained that flawless skin, that effortless voice, and enough confidence to sing directly to the woman who might steal her man.

The cake can have the cracks. Dolly will always be Dolly, even from the great beyond.

Can I Make Gooey Butter Cake Ahead?

Absolutely. In fact, this is a great dessert to make the day before serving.

Allow the cake to cool completely at room temperature first. Once completely cool, cover the baking dish tightly and refrigerate overnight. The chilling time will allow the gooey layer to firm enough for cleaner cutting.

For the best eating texture, let the pieces sit at room temperature for 30–60 minutes before serving so that luscious center has time to soften again.

How Should I Store Gooey Butter Cake?

Because this version contains a substantial cream cheese layer, I prefer to store the finished cake covered in the refrigerator.

Bring individual pieces closer to room temperature before serving for the best soft, gooey texture.

More Dolly Parton Recipes

This recipe is part of my ongoing Dolly Parton baking series, where I'm baking with Dolly's cake mixes, reviewing the mixes themselves, and turning them into all sorts of fun desserts inspired by Dolly's music, movies, life, and my own memories.

Start here:

Be sure to check out my growing collection, including:

• Easy Copycat Dollywood Cinnamon Bread
• Dolly Parton Banana Bread
• Dolly Parton Banana Bread Cookies
• Dolly Parton Pineapple Coconut Cake
• Dolly Parton Coconut Cookies with Lemon Glaze
• Dolly Parton Apples & Bananas Dump Cake
• Dolly Parton Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies with Nutella
• Dolly Parton Mississippi Mud Cake
• Strawberry Pound CakeStrawberry Pound Cake
• Dolly Parton Sock It to Me Cake
• Dolly Parton Strawberry Lemonade Cheesecake Bars

And there are plenty more coming! As each new recipe goes live, I'll add it to the collection.

Final Thoughts

I went into this recipe thinking the Gooey Butter Cake itself would be the discovery. Instead, I discovered two things:

• First, after all these years of baking, I finally understand Gooey Butter Cake. It's not quite cake. It's not quite a bar. The bottom is dense and buttery, the topping is soft and rich, and the whole thing is intentionally, wonderfully gooey.
• But the second discovery surprised me even more: Dolly Parton's yellow cake mix is really good.

I noticed it before I'd even finished making the recipe: the unusually fine texture of the dry mix, the pale natural color, the lovely buttery yellow it became after adding the egg, and that rich flavor Dolly herself talks about on the box.

I've built much of this site around showing people what can happen when you start with a boxed cake mix and take it somewhere new.

After all this time, it's pretty fun to open a box and discover that the cake mix itself can still surprise me.

And as for Jolene?

She can have the auburn hair, the ivory skin, and those emerald-green eyes.

Dolly brought the Gooey Butter Cake.

Jolene...who?

Thanks for Stopping By!

If you make this delicious cake and enjoy it, please leave a comment or review. And before you go, why not pin some photos to your Pinterest boards.

Janice Thompson is a professional baker, cake designer, and author with over 20 years of experience creating unique cakes and desserts. She’s the creator of Out of the Box Baking, where she shares her favorite doctored cake mix recipes, tutorials, and baking tips. Learn more →