What makes Del Frisco's Butter Cake different from Mastro's Butter Cake?

The two steakhouse butter cakes differ in both format and technique. Del Frisco's version is baked in a large 9x13 pan and sliced into squares — it's a shareable slab dessert meant for a table. Mastro's version is baked in individual ramekins and inverted onto individual plates at service. The cream cheese technique also differs: Del Frisco's blends cream cheese directly into the batter, so the finished cake is uniformly dense and gooey throughout. Mastro's uses a separate unbaked cream cheese mixture dolloped onto the top of each ramekin, which sinks during baking to create a concentrated gooey pocket in the center of an otherwise fully-set cake. Del Frisco's pairs theirs with caramel sauce; Mastro's typically uses raspberry sauce. Both are exceptional — they're just doing different things.

How do I know when Del Frisco's Butter Cake is done?

The edges should be fully set and pulling slightly from the pan sides, and the top should be pale golden. At the center, a toothpick should come out with moist, dense crumbs — not clean, and not wet raw batter. The center of the pan should have a faint jiggle when you shake it, like a barely-set cheesecake. If the center is completely still with no give at all, it's slightly overbaked and will be denser and drier than the restaurant version. The 45-minute mark is when to start checking; 50 minutes is usually the sweet spot in a home oven. Every oven runs differently — use a toothpick and the jiggle test together, not just the timer.

Can I make Del Frisco's Butter Cake in advance?

Yes, and the restaurant does exactly this. Del Frisco's bakes the cake earlier in service, holds it, and warms slices to order. At home: bake the full pan, let it cool completely, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate up to 3 days. To serve, cut a square and warm it in a 325°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes (or microwave on medium power for 60 to 75 seconds, watching carefully). The cream cheese makes reheating forgiving — it doesn't dry out the way a pound cake can. The fresh-baked version has a slightly better texture, but the reheated version is excellent and requires no timing coordination with the rest of the meal.

What kind of caramel sauce should I use?

A pourable, fluid caramel — not the thick spreadable kind. The restaurant version uses a sauce thin enough to pool around the base of the cake square and drizzle over the ice cream. Store-bought caramel sauce (Trader Joe's fleur de sel caramel sauce, Smuckers caramel topping, or Ghirardelli) works well. For homemade: combine 1 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, swirling occasionally (not stirring) until it turns amber. Add 1/2 cup heavy cream carefully (it will bubble violently), then 2 tablespoons butter and a pinch of salt. Stir until smooth. Makes about 1 cup; keeps refrigerated 2 weeks. Serve at room temperature so it's pourable rather than stiff.

Why is cream cheese the defining ingredient here?

Cream cheese does three things in this batter that butter alone cannot. First, its proteins set at a lower temperature than wheat proteins, so the interior of the cake reaches eating-texture gooeyness at an oven temperature that fully bakes the edges — you get set edges and a soft center without underbaking. Second, its fat-to-moisture ratio creates a denser, more velvety crumb than a standard butter cake. Third, its mild tang cuts through the sweetness of 2 cups of sugar in a way that makes the cake taste less aggressively sweet than the ingredient list would suggest. Recipes that omit the cream cheese and substitute extra butter produce a cake that's rich but flat-textured and cloying. The cream cheese is not optional.

Can I add mix-ins — chocolate chips, pecans, bourbon?

Yes, and all three work well with the base batter. Chocolate chips (1 cup semi-sweet, folded in at the end) turn this into a different but excellent dessert — rich, dense, chocolate-studded, pairs better with vanilla ice cream than caramel. Chopped toasted pecans (1/2 cup) add crunch that contrasts with the gooey texture; fold in with the flour. Bourbon (1 to 2 tablespoons added with the vanilla) adds a warm, slightly smoky note that suits the Texas steakhouse context. Del Frisco's also serves a chocolate butter cake variation at some locations — fold 1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa into the flour mixture and add 2 extra tablespoons of sugar to compensate for the cocoa's bitterness.

What size pan can I use besides 9x13?

A 9x13 is the standard and produces a cake about 1 inch thick — the right ratio of surface area (caramelized top and edges) to interior gooeyness. A 9x9 square pan works but the cake will be thicker (~1.5 inches) and the center will need more baking time — start checking at 55 minutes. Two 8-inch round pans are another option; both will be done around the same time as a 9x13, and rounds are easier to slice into wedges for individual plating. A 10-inch cast-iron skillet produces one of the best results — the direct-contact heat caramelizes the bottom more aggressively than a light metal pan, and serving from the skillet at the table adds presentation. Adjust baking time up or down 5 to 8 minutes for smaller or thicker pans.

Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Butter Cake (The Warm One)

Name: Del Frisco's Double Eagle Butter Cake (The Warm One)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 cup (2 sticks / 227g) unsalted butter, at room temperature; 8 oz (227g) full-fat block cream cheese, at room temperature; 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar; 4 large eggs, at room temperature; 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon fine salt; For serving:; Vanilla bean ice cream; Caramel sauce, store-bought or homemade (see FAQ)

Prep time: 15 min Cook time: 50 min Servings: 12

The Del Frisco’s name goes back to 1981, when Dale “Del Frisco” Wamstad and Dee Lincoln started out in the restaurant business. The big, clubby Double Eagle Steakhouse that defined the brand took root in Dallas and became the template for the Texas power-dinner steakhouse — USDA prime beef, mahogany booths, a wine list that needs its own table, and servers who have been there long enough to know your order before you sit down. Landry’s acquired the company in 2019. There are now more than a dozen Double Eagle locations.

The Warm Butter Cake has been on the menu through all of it.

It’s not complicated. Butter, cream cheese, sugar, eggs, flour — mixed in one bowl, poured into a large pan, baked at 350°F, sliced warm, served with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. A single order at the restaurant runs $14 to $17 and is large enough for two people. The full pan at home costs $4 to $5 and feeds twelve, or two people across three very good days.

What makes it work is what the cream cheese does to the batter: it lowers the temperature at which the interior sets, so the edges finish before the center does, and the center stays soft and gooey even when the cake is fully baked. It’s not underbaking, it’s architecture. You pull a cake where the edges are golden and set, the top is pale and barely colored, and the center still has that faint give — and that give is the whole point.

How This Differs from Mastro’s Butter Cake

Both are steakhouse butter cakes made with cream cheese. Both are served warm with vanilla ice cream. They’re doing different things.

Del Frisco’s bakes the batter in a large pan and slices to order. It’s a shareable table dessert — one square each, a scoop of ice cream, a drizzle of caramel. Mastro’s bakes in individual ramekins (turbinado-sugar-coated), inverts them onto individual plates, and drizzles raspberry sauce. Del Frisco’s cream cheese goes directly into the batter, so the gooeyness is distributed throughout. Mastro’s uses a separate cream cheese dollop placed on top of the batter that sinks to create a concentrated gooey pocket in the center of an otherwise set cake. The experiences are different: Del Frisco’s is warm slab comfort food, every bite even. Mastro’s is a composed individual dessert with a specific gooey-center moment.

If you’ve already made one, the other is worth making.

The One Thing Most Home Recipes Get Wrong

Room temperature ingredients. Both the butter and the cream cheese must be genuinely soft — not cool, not slightly firm, not “close enough.” Cold cream cheese does not beat smooth; it forms lumps that persist through the whole mixing process and bake into dense spots. Cold butter doesn’t aerate properly and produces a cake that’s heavy rather than tender.

Set both out 1 to 2 hours before baking. If you’re rushed: cut the cream cheese into 1-inch cubes and microwave on low in 10-second bursts until it feels like soft putty (not warm, not melted). Repeat for the butter. This takes 2 minutes and the cake is better for it.

What to Serve Alongside

Caramel sauce: The restaurant version uses a pourable caramel — fluid enough to pool around the base of the square and drizzle over the ice cream. Trader Joe’s fleur de sel caramel, Smuckers caramel topping, or Ghirardelli caramel all work. For homemade, see the FAQ above.

Vanilla bean ice cream: Full-fat, with real vanilla bean specks. Häagen-Dazs or Talenti. The quality matters because the temperature contrast between cold ice cream and the warm cake is the structural mechanism of the dessert — you want the ice cream to still be cold when you serve it, and only melt at the contact point with the cake. Soft-serve collapses too fast.

Optional — fleur de sel: A small pinch of flaky salt (Maldon, fleur de sel) on top of the ice cream just before serving amplifies everything. Del Frisco’s doesn’t do this officially, but many who’ve recreated the dessert add it, and it works.

Variations

Chocolate Butter Cake: Del Frisco’s serves a chocolate version at some locations. Add 1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder to the flour mixture and increase sugar by 2 tablespoons to compensate for the cocoa’s bitterness. Proceed exactly as the base recipe. Serve with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce instead of caramel.

Bourbon Pecan: Add 2 tablespoons bourbon with the vanilla extract, and fold 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans into the batter before baking. The bourbon note is warm and barely perceptible — it suits the Texas steakhouse context without making this a bourbon dessert.

Cast-Iron Skillet: The 9x13 pan is the standard, but a 10- or 12-inch cast-iron skillet produces one of the best results in this recipe. The direct-contact heat from cast iron caramelizes the bottom more aggressively than a light aluminum pan, creating a slightly crisp base that contrasts with the gooey top. Bake times are similar; serve from the skillet at the table.

The Restaurant Math

	Del Frisco’s	Home
Dessert price	$14–17 (serves 2)	$4–5 (serves 12)
Per serving	~$7–8	~$0.35
Ice cream	House vanilla	Depends on brand
Format	Single square, plated	Sliced from pan
Caramel	House-made	Store-bought or homemade

The home version is not a compromise. The cake is the same cake. What you’re paying for at the restaurant is the room — the booth, the service, the occasion. Those are worth buying when the occasion calls for it. On a Tuesday in October when you want warm butter cake with ice cream and caramel, the home version is the right call.

More Famous Steakhouse Recipes

Copycat Mastro’s Butter Cake — the individual ramekin version with turbinado crust and the cream cheese topping dollop technique: a different format, a different gooeyness architecture, the same essential pleasure
Copycat Morton’s Legendary Hot Chocolate Cake — the molten lava cake format from another storied American steakhouse chain, a completely different dessert technique
Copycat The Capital Grille Lobster Mac and Cheese — the most famous upscale steakhouse side dish, reproduced with the same cream, lobster-stock base, and brioche breadcrumb crust the restaurant uses
Copycat Ruth’s Chris Filet Mignon — the 500°F plate technique that makes Ruth’s Chris filet the specific experience it is, brought home
Copycat Texas Roadhouse Prime Rib — the slow-roasted prime rib technique for a crowd, from the Texas chain that has sold more prime rib than almost any other restaurant in America

Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse is a trademark of its owner, used here only to describe the dish this recipe recreates. This is an independent copycat written in our own words — Copycat Spices is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse.

Del Frisco's Double Eagle Butter Cake (The Warm One)

Shop the tools