California Pizza Kitchen Butter Cake Recipe: A Copycat Recipe From "Hack That Dish" (7 Ingredients) by Todd Wilbur

Imagine a giant soft sugar cookie with sweetened cream cheese on top, served warm as if it just came out of the oven, and you have California Pizza Kitchen's Butter Cake. It's a delectable dessert that is easy to prep for service by cooks in the restaurant, since the cakes are made ahead of time and chilled until requested. When an order hits the kitchen, the cake is heated for a minute in the microwave, then topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and surrounded by dollops of whipped cream. I've designed this copycat hack the same way, so you can make your cakes in advance and chill them until dessert time. Or, if you prefer, you can serve the cakes right after they come out of the oven.

To make this cake recipe you'll need four 4-inch cake pans, ramekins or any baking dishes that are 4 inches across. To make the batter, I used a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, but a handheld mixer also does the job. After about 50 minutes in the oven, you'll have a perfect re-creation of the chain's hit dessert that you're sure to love.

To make this copycat recipe for CPK's butter cake, you will need the following ingredients: butter, granulated sugar, salt, eggs, vanilla extract, flour (all-purpose or gluten-free flour) and cream cheese.

Field Notes: When you order a dish like this to go for study later in your lab (kitchen), request that they not heat the cake because you want to “eat it tomorrow.” If they agree to give you a cold cake, you can ask for the heating instructions, and they’ll tell you how they prepare it in the restaurant for service, which is insider information that will help with your hack recipe. Before working on this clone, I sliced the sample cake in half to see the cross section. This visual helped me estimate how much cream cheese to use for the gooey layer. Revealing the cross-section of a dish like this one is a great way to determine ratios and estimate measurements for the layers.

Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 15 minutes plus time to cool cake
Cook Time: 45 to 55 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour 

Cream Cheese Topping

• 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For Baking

• softened butter, for greasing pans
• sparkling sugar or Sugar in the Raw

For Serving

• 4 scoops vanilla ice cream
• 2 cups whipped cream

Here's how to make it: 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. To make cake: Cream butter, sugar, and salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed for 3 minutes. If you’re using a stand mixer, use paddle attachment.
3. Scrape down sides of bowl, then add egg yolks one at a time while mixing. Add egg and vanilla and mix on high speed for 1 minute. Add flour and mix on low speed until all flour is mixed in.
4. To make cream cheese topping: Combine ingredients in a medium bowl and beat on high speed for 1 minute.
5. Butter insides of four (4 inches) cake pans or ramekins and sprinkle some sparkling sugar or Sugar in the Raw onto bottom of each cake pan.
6. Divide cake batter evenly among cake pans. There should be around 61⁄ 2 ounces of batter in each pan. Use moistened fingers to smooth out top of batter.
7. Divide cream cheese topping and spoon it over top of batter in each pan (about 3 tablespoons per pan).
8. Bake cakes for 45 to 55 minutes until edge of cream cheese is light brown.
9. Let cakes cool 30 minutes in pans, then carefully slide a butter knife around inside edges of pans to help release each cake. Turn each cake pan over into your hand to release cakes, then place cakes with cream cheese topping on top in a covered container and refrigerate for up to 4 days until ready to serve.
10. To serve, reheat cakes one at a time in microwave on high for 1 minute. Add ice cream and whipped cream on top.

The excerpt is from Hack That Dish by Todd Wilbur. Copyright © 2026 by Todd Wilbur. Photographs by Harper Point Photography. Published by Adams Media, an imprint of Simon and Schuster. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

Recipe cooking times, nutritional information and servings are approximate and provided for your convenience. However, 30Seconds is not responsible for the outcome of any recipe, nor may you have the same results because of variations in ingredients, temperatures, altitude, errors, omissions or cooking/baking abilities. Any nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and it is up to the individual to ascertain accuracy. To ensure image quality, we may occasionally use stock photography.

Take 30 seconds and join the 30Seconds community, and follow us on Facebook to get recipes in your newsfeed daily. Food, fun, health, happiness.