The worst part about New Year’s Day is the resolutions. People go on diets. They stop eating food that tastes good and try to eat food that tastes bad (so that they won’t eat too much of it). They say no when I offer tastes of delicious food. Every morsel of food that you put in your mouth should be delicious! So for those of you who avoid resolutions, here is an over-the-top, totally-decadent, no-redeeming-nutritional-value recipe.

Yes, there are versions of this St. Louis cake that use a cake mix or packaged cake or shortening or margarine. But if you are interested in the butter part of Gooey Butter Cake, please use Plugra Butter (82 percent butterfat!) and flavor the cake with real vanilla extract.

Gooey Butter Cake

for the dough:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 1/4 cups flour (plus more as needed)

Mix together the butter, sugar, salt, egg, and vanilla. Combine the milk and yeast and add to the mixture. Stir well with a dough whisk. Add the flour, half-cup at a time, and stir until well-combined. Turn the dough out on a rollmat and knead for a couple of minutes, until smooth and satiny, adding more flour if necessary. Place back in the bowl, cover, and let rise for an hour.

for the filling:

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• dash of salt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons corn syrup
• 1 1/8 cups flour

Combine the sugar, butter, salt, egg, corn syrup, and vanilla and mix together until well blended. Fold in the flour.

To assemble:

Press the dough into a 9×13 inch ceramic baking pan, and be sure to press the dough up the sides. Use a pastry dough docker to keep the dough from bubbling during baking. Spread the filling on top. Let sit for 15 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, until the edges are well-browned but the filling is still gooey.