Gooey Butter Cake Throwdown: 4 Juice Cage Match

[billherbst]

Gooey Butter Cake is a bakery confection that originated in St. Louis, Missouri (and is still popular there). Starting in the 1930s (I think), GBC proliferated quickly through the many European-style bakeries run largely by first- and second-generation German immigrants who settled in St. Louis.

GBC is not traditionally served as a dessert, but usually as a coffee cake (or “kuchen” in German). The original style is somewhat akin to yellow cake, but richer and more buttery, where the “cake” is baked to brown crustiness on the bottom and top, but stays gooey and pudding-like in the yellow center. This goo-filled yummy brick is then dusted with confectioner’s sugar for a sweet finish. I grew up in St. Louis, so I know what “real” gooey butter cake tastes like, as I had it hundreds of times during my childhood and adolescence.

As far as I’m aware, Vape-a-licious was the first vendor to create and sell a version of GBC as a vaping juice. Other vendors have followed suit with their own versions.

The four contestants I have are:

Vape-a-licious St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake - 18mg nic in a 70/30 base blend
KickBassVapor Gooey Better Cake - 18mg nic in a 70/30 base blend
ParkesVaping Gooey Goodness Cake - 18mg nic in a 60/40 base blend
AltCig Gooey Butter Cake - 24mg nic in a 50/50 base blend


Let me state up front that all four of these are good dessert juices. You may prefer one over the others (as I did), but if you don’t like any of the four, then you’re probably not really someone who enjoys sweet dessert vapes. Please understand also that I’m judging them solely on their resemblance to the flavors of the actual coffee cake.

I’m going to dispense with issues such as vapor production and general performance, because the four are similar enough in those areas that it shouldn’t matter which you choose. All four of my bottles have had ample steeping time to be mature in flavor. Each was sampled by atty-dripping into a bonut-modded 1.5 ohm Joye LR306 atty driven by a freshly-charged Hello 016 battery providing 4.2 volts unloaded for a loaded power of about 8 watts.

First in line is Vape-a-licious St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake. This juice is very sweet and extremely buttery, with the clear flavor of yellow cake. As a replicant of the real thing, it’s close, but no cigar for two reasons: 1. it’s actually too sweet, and 2. it has a maple tone that comes through the flavor profile and tends to linger afterwards. Actual GBC has no maple flavor at all, so that element in the juice detracts from the authenticity. Still, Vape-a-licious StL GBC was the original, and it’s richer and more buttery than any of the other three juices.

Next up is Gooey Better Cake from KickBassVapor. Notice that the name is Better rather than Butter. That difference isn’t just one-upmanship against Vape-a-licious StL GBC, it’s also reflected in the juice itself: KBV GBC is not nearly as buttery as VAL, plus, the cake flavor is white cake, not yellow. Phil Busardo recently pronounced KBV GBC better than VAL StL GBC, but he was wrong. Clearly, Phil is an East Coast Jersey guy who has never been to St. Louis to taste the real thing. What KBV has created is a very yummy vanilla-flavored white cake batter, but it’s NOT Gooey Butter Cake. Not for me anyway. Sorry. (I find this very odd, since KBV is located in Bourbon, Missouri, a mere 70 miles from St. Louis. With all their dessert savvy and that location, I’d have thought that KBV would have nailed this one…)

Third is ParkesVaping Gooey Goodness Cake. This is closer to real GBC than KBV. It also gets high marks for being less sweet than VAL, but it’s still white cake flavor (made with egg whites), not the more authentic yellow cake (made with egg yolks), and it's not nearly as gooey-buttery as Vape-a-licious. Good try, though.

Finally, we have AltCig Gooey Butter Cake. No funny business with the name here. Both in name and in flavor, this is the closest to actual GBC. (I feel a bit like Goldilocks sampling the four Bears’ porridge in this review. Well, AltCig is Baby Bear’s porridge---just right.) While AltCig GBC doesn’t have the obvious golden yellow cake flavor of VAL, it comes close. It's also slightly less buttery in gooey richness, but still very close. And crucially, it’s less sweet than VAL with no maple overtones. Though slightly less potent than the real coffee cake, AltCig GBC doesn’t overwhelm the palate, as Vape-a-licious StL GBC tends to.

As a result, AltCig Gooey Butter Cake is my personal favorite of the four and the winner of this throw-down.

My rankings:

1. AltCig Gooey Butter Cake - just right. 8.5 out of a possible 10.
2. Vape-a-licious St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake - amazing buttery richness, but too sweet, and ditch that maple. 7 out of 10.
3. ParkesVaping Gooey Goodness Cake - Sort of GBC Lite. Good, but not terrific. 6 out of 10.
4. KickBassVapor Gooey Better Cake - a delicious vanilla white cake batter juice, but not even close to real GBC. 4 out of 10.

As always, taste is subjective, so your mileage may vary.

 

[billherbst]

Since no one has responded to my review, I'll respond to myself. LOL. But I'll do it with a false persona (a fictional character I'll call KBVfanboy...).

Hey Bill, what's wrong with you? Those other three juices can't hold a candle to KBV Gooey Better Cake! Last place? 4 out of 10??? Are you crazy? KickBass makes the best dessert juices ever. Period.

--KBVfanboy

 

[ambientech]

Since no one has responded to my review, I'll respond to myself. LOL. But I'll do it with a false persona (a fictional character I'll call KBVfanboy...).

Hey Bill, what's wrong with you? Those other three juices can't hold a candle to KBV Gooey Better Cake! Last place? 4 out of 10??? Are you crazy? KickBass makes the best dessert juices ever. Period.

--KBVfanboy

LOL I agree KBV have plenty of fanboy's

I have tried 5 or 6 different KBV juices and while they are ok they are not up to the hype at all IMO

 

[billherbst]

Hey Bill, what's wrong with you? Those other three juices can't hold a candle to KBV Gooey Better Cake! Last place? 4 out of 10??? Are you crazy? KickBass makes the best dessert juices ever. Period.

--KBVfanboy

Dear "KBVfanboy" (aka myself),

Look, I hold KBV in the highest regard. I agree that they make wonderful juices. Even their RY4 has won my heart, and that's no small feat. Yes, KickBass Gooey Better Cake is a terrific dessert juice. Flavorful and tasty, altogether delicious. If I were judging cake batter juices, KBV GBC would get a 9 out of 10 rating from me.

The problem, though, is that my review wasn't about cake batter juices. No, it was about Gooey Butter Cake, which is a very specific dessert that exists in real life, has a long history, and is a coffee cake that I have eaten many times. Even though that was a long time ago (more than four decades), one doesn't forget such a unique experience of flavor and texture. Especially not after 50 times. It's like Jif Peanut Butter and Welch's Grape Jelly sandwiches or Campbell's Tomato Soup---your brain simply never forgets the imprinted flavors from your childhood.

Unfortunately, KBV Gooey Better Cake simply does not reproduce the flavors or mimic the textures of the real Gooey Butter Cake I had way back when. Where is the rich egg yolk flavor in the yellow cake? Nowhere. KBV uses a white cake flavor. Where is the over-the-top but delicious butteriness of real GBC? Well, KBV has some of that, but it's restrained, with sweetness emphasized instead of richness (in fairness, Vape-a-licious GBC, which does get the butter richness right, is even sweeter than KBV, and VAL seems to use maple syrup flavor to achieve its uber-sweetness, which is why I knocked it down to second place).

Real, authentic Gooey Butter Cake is not overly sweet, merely dusted lightly with confectioner's sugar on top to provide an extra hint of pure sweetness to go with its main elements: the browned crust and yummy yellow cake, followed by the amazingly rich and buttery "filling," which isn't really filling at all, just more of the same thick yellow cake batter that's not cooked as much as the surrounding cake and crust. If you've never tasted it, you've missed out on something special.

I will vape dry my entire 15ml bottle of KBV Gooey Better Cake, and I will enjoy it a lot. I have three other vendor's cake batter juices, including a diy version of my own, and KBV GBC pretty much kills all those. But I won't be thinking "Ah, yes---Gooey Butter Cake!" when I vape it.

 

[Jim Bob]

I rather enjoyed the review and the descriptions- I may have even learned a few things!

 

[Sassy Sadie]

Hi Bill!

I enjoyed your review! Guess I will have to try AltCig for myself. Being born and raised in St Louis I am a diehard Gooey Butter Cake Fan. My grandfather worked nights for the railroad right in the heart of down town St Louis. Every Sat morning he stopped by the bakery to pick this delightful treat for us (wont tell you how long ago that was). I will tell you that GBC has been a family tradition for several (meaning more than a few) generations. We still make it for the Holidays and there is just something about it that takes me back to those good ole days... before the worry of heart disease... lol.

Val's juice has always brought home that same warm feeling for me... I have never personally picked up on a hint of maple in that juice... I laugh when I hear people say that.... I guess that just goes to show how subjective each person's experience is.

Thanks for a well written review!

 

[GoldyCash]

Great review. I have tried both KBV and AltCig versions, they're both delicious, but i can't pick a favorite. And i haven't actually tasted the real cake, unfortunately. AltCig has great juices, i'm vaping the Caramel Cappuccino right now and i love it.

 

[Lacedolphin]

I have Ms.ts version, wonder how it stacks up???

 

[billherbst]

I have Ms.ts version, wonder how it stacks up???

Lace,

I wonder, too. I'm all tapped out for buying juices, though, so unless someone sends me some of Ms.T's to sample, I'll just have to keep wondering. LOL.

 

[lizblue]

Thanks for the review. I went and ordered the 3 I haven't tried yet. I also am waiting on Ms. T's Bakery version of STLGBC, so I was disappointed that you didn't include that one in your review. I'll post my impressions once I've got it. I've been vaping KBV's and I love it. Since it doesn't taste like the official STLGBC, maybe I'll wind up with 2 favorite GBCs to vape.

 

[billherbst]

Thanks for the review. I went and ordered the 3 I haven't tried yet. I also am waiting on Ms. T's Bakery version of STLGBC, so I was disappointed that you didn't include that one in your review. I'll post my impressions once I've got it. I've been vaping KBV's and I love it. Since it doesn't taste like the official STLGBC, maybe I'll wind up with 2 favorite GBCs to vape.

Liz,

If I'd had a magic wand, I'd have conjured up a bottle of Ms. T's GBC for the review. LOL. Maybe someone who has already vaped Ms. T's will chime in and tell us what it tastes like to him/her.

I've read numerous posts by people extolling the yumminess of KBV GBC, and I can see why. I think it's really good too. Maybe that's all that matters, really. Just because AltCig "won" my little cage match doesn't mean that I'll stop vaping KBV's. As I wrote, all four juices in the review are tasty dessert vapes, and I have no doubt that Ms. T's is good as well.

Who knows? You may end up preferring KBV's vanilla cake-batter-like version over the more "authentic" GBCs.

 

[Lethalp]

I was just thinking the other day that someone should do a review on all the GBC juices, and here it is u beat me to it lol.
I had never even heard of gooey butter cake until Tatskull was kind enough to send s sample of the KBV juice to me shortly after I started vaping. He sent me a 3 ml sample and I think I vaped the whole think in a few minutes! At that time I had only had a couple vendor juice and it was by far the best thing I had ever tasted! I liked it so much I researched and found the recipe and made the real thing. My family thought I had gone nuts, they could not figure out what the heck I was doing to the cake mix! Lol I have made several of them since then and they always disappear pretty quick.

Ok onto the juices I have had, in the order I have had them

1) KBV
2) Vapalicious
3) DIY flavor shak
4) Altcig
5) Hoosier vapors (its a small mom and pop type from a local mixer, it's actually steeping right now)

I have never had the gbc or anything for that matter from Parkes, or Msts and I don't know if anyone else makes it? I actually really liked all of them and would order any one of them again, DIY flavor shak would be the exception, I did not care for Dawns version of gbc, if I remember right I think it tasted like banana to me? I know Dawn has lots of fans and lots of ppl who like that juice, it just was not for me. Now if u want to talk about her cookie juice I am all ears, that one is fantastic!!

I also really liked VAL gbc, but it def needed to steep at least IMO. I didn't find it too sweet, but then again, I don't think I have found a juice that is, I like them that way, tho I know they aren't for everyone either.

I must say I was a lil surprised to see that u thought Altcig was the most accurate, I love theirs too, and u simply will not find a sweeter vendor and person to do business with than Sunny. I guess I just assumed like u did that KBV would have nailed it since they live so close. And maybe the KBV stands out to me because it was the first one I had, so that's what I compare all the others too, idk.

Like I said I would happily buy any one of them again (and probably will ) But not cause I think they taste like what I made, just because I think they are great and very tasty juices. One of my biggest hopes is to be able to one day DIY any version of gbc, I figure if I can master that one first, anything else should be pretty easy! Lol

So let me ask the OP, u have said Altcig is most like gbc, is that one your favorite just as a juice or does the order change at all?

 

[billherbst]

So let me ask the OP, u have said Altcig is most like gbc, is that one your favorite just as a juice or does the order change at all?

Lethalp,

I don't have a favorite. All four are good, meaning that I like them all, but none is a daily vape for me. My staple juices are tobacco blends. Next is coffees, then fruits and desserts on a more occasional basis.

My rankings in the review were based not on how much I liked each juice, but solely on how closely I felt they replicated the flavors of actual Gooey Butter Cake, at least insofar as my childhood memories recall.

My "taste memories" concerning GBC are very distinct, but that's no guarantee that they're accurate. In the same way that taste is personal and subjective, human memory is notoriously inaccurate. One person's memory may be more "correct" than another person's for certain types of events or specific experiences, but all the research (without exception, as far as I know) confirms that our brains alter the information we store, and that this alteration tends to increase over time, often morphing so far from objective truth as to be fictional. So please take my review rankings with a grain of salt.

To me, juice reviews aren't rocket science; they're sharing personal vaping experiences and judgments in a way that's entertaining and occasionally informative.

 

[CrystalClaire]

Being married to St. Louisan, I'm a huge fan of GBC and my favorite, hands down, is Kick Bass Vapor's version. It's an all day vape for me.It's perfectly buttery and very sweet, as GBC should be. I definitely taste more of a yellow cake than white in this juice.

.I wasn't crazy about the.Vape-a-licious version because it wasn't sweet enough for my taste. Im glad I didn't taste maple in it though!..I'll save it for if I find myself out of KBV's GBC.

I've been steeping Ms Ts for two weeks so I'll try that one soon and maybe I'll give alt cigs version and Parkes a try too.

 

[Lethalp]

Please let us know now msts compares crystal, I would love to know, and I think bill would too, I wish someone would send him a sample. So he could put it in the line up.

So since this throw down is winding down, is there another juice we could do a comparison of? Not like apple, or vannila, I think they have too many variants, hmm let me think, and of course anyone else can chime in too,

 

[Loveridden]

Thanks for the review!! I recently tried Val's and think it is very yummy!! But yeah it can be overwhelming as you say! Am interested to try other gooey butter cakes so this review comes in handy! I have NEVER tried gooey butter cake in real life. Now I want to tho!! lol

 

[CrystalClaire]

I definitely need to give VALs another try. Maybe I didn't steep it enough. Usually I steep for a minimum of two weeks but at times, I lack restraint, especially with bakery style juices.

 

[Karla Lyle]

I have tried them all including MsT's and I think KBV makes the best. Although I always order it in EXtra flavor and it makes all the difference. I actually ordered it on accident with just the regular flavor and it was not nearly as good as with the EXtra flavor. Somehow with the Extra flavor it tasted more buttery. I was suprised someone said KBV tasted less buttery than the others cause that's almost all I seem to taste. It tastes like butter and powdered sugar with a bit of cake. I actually make the real Gooey butter cake quite often at home and everyone here absolutely loves it. Also I noticed no one mentioned that it might have cream cheese in it as well as butter and yellow cake. Not all variations of the real thing have the cream cheese, but a lot do. In my opinion the best ones do. This just really does go to show how everyone tastes things differently cause when I vape KBV GBC I swear it tastes like a mouthful of buttery goodness. I also really like Vapealicious as well as Altcig and MsT's but when I buy GBC again, KBV is gonna get the sale. Maybe I'm a KBV fan girl, whatever that is, if that means I really like them. I see a whole lot more Ms T's fan boys/girls almost to the point of throwing blows if you say something they don't agree with. I may have to lock my doors after this post, but then again I'm probably a MsT's fangirl too, cause she makes a lot of my favorite juices too. I just feel KBV does this one best though. To each our own.

 

[billherbst]

I have tried them all including MsT's and I think KBV makes the best. Although I always order it in EXtra flavor and it makes all the difference. I actually ordered it on accident with just the regular flavor and it was not nearly as good as with the EXtra flavor. Somehow with the Extra flavor it tasted more buttery. I was suprised someone said KBV tasted less buttery than the others cause that's almost all I seem to taste. It tastes like butter and powdered sugar with a bit of cake. I actually make the real Gooey butter cake quite often at home and everyone here absolutely loves it. Also I noticed no one mentioned that it might have cream cheese in it as well as butter and yellow cake. Not all variations of the real thing have the cream cheese, but a lot do. In my opinion the best ones do. This just really does go to show how everyone tastes things differently cause when I vape KBV GBC I swear it tastes like a mouthful of buttery goodness. I also really like Vapealicious as well as Altcig and MsT's but when I buy GBC again, KBV is gonna get the sale. Maybe I'm a KBV fan girl, whatever that is, if that means I really like them. I see a whole lot more Ms T's fan boys/girls almost to the point of throwing blows if you say something they don't agree with. I may have to lock my doors after this post, but then again I'm probably a MsT's fangirl too, cause she makes a lot of my favorite juices too. I just feel KBV does this one best though. To each our own.

Karla,

No need to lock your doors on my account. I understand loving some juices, and I certainly appreciate loyalty to a good vendor, but the rabid attack dog mentality of ripping into anyone who criticizes a fan's sacred cow vendor seems perverse to me. Must be an in-group/out-group thing. Heck, I don't like every juice from any vendor, no matter how much I appreciate the creativity and artisanal skill of a given juicemaker. Even the best alchemical wizards sometimes bomb (meaning that they make juices I don't happen to like).

I think you are probably onto something with the "extra flavor" KBV GBC. My seven-month-old bottle is regular flavor. Ordering extra flavor might be the equivalent of adding the egg yolks to the batter for that kicked-up richness. Drat! Now you've made me want to try some KBV with extra flavor, even though I shouldn't even consider buying more GBC from any vendor. Four GBCs ought to be enough for a juice I vape only occasionally.

As far as I know, the "original" gooey butter cake didn't have cream cheese, but just about every conceivable variation has come down the pike over 80 years, with the cream cheese variant being the most popular twist on the original (I never had that one when I was a kid, only the original, and since I'm diabetic now, my GBC days are long gone). In one of my Google searches researching this thread, I read that one bakery in St. Louis sells over 70 varieties of GBC. Heaven only knows...

 

[coffeevapergirl]

Ty for the review of the gooey butter cake. I was going to buy it from KBV. I'll check out AltCig's site.