Rum Cake Concept Discussion?

Now that the weather is getting chilly where I am, my thoughts turn to Rum Cake, one of the more enjoyable desserts of the holiday season. And it occurs to me that it makes sense to invent a tiki-inspired variation of this that incorporates thematically correct flavors. Something that fits may already exist, but I don't know about it.

I'm not really some culinary genius, and not qualified to invent such a thing. But I bet some of you folks here could run with the concept and come up with something startling, based on some of the recipes I've read.

mmmm,yum. There are tons of Barcardi rum cake recipes. I wonder how Zaya, Pirate, or even Appleton's would translate? I bet delicious. Some of Rum cake the recipes include a 1/4 cup of rum as part of the total liquid mix, blended into yellow cake mix. After the cake is baked they bring sugar and rum to a boil, poke holes in the cake, and drizzle. MMMM, looks like I'll be doing some baking soon. Will let you know. :)

I think IDOT should weigh in with her ultimate drunkard Rum Cake.
It nearly killed me.

My mom makes amazing rum cakes every holiday season!

[Edited when I discovered that my mother reads all my TC posts.]

[ Edited by: JenTiki 2006-12-19 10:52 ]

key lime rum cake by me!

I used a modified version of dogbytes' recipe for the slam-bam rum cake of the January FL Tiki revival. Realized too late that I forgot the key lime part.

To accomplish the cake using a mix, I used this recipe. If you actually want to include key lime juice in the cake itself, reduce the rum so the liquid amount is more like dogbytes' recipe.

Jamaican Rum Cake

1/2 C. chopped pecans
1 (18.25 oz.) box yellow cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 C. vegetable oil
1/2 C. water
1/2 C. dark rum

Glaze:
1 stick (1/2 C.) butter
1 C. sugar
1/4 C. water
1/4 C. rum

*Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray a bundt or tube pan with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle pecans around bottom of pan.

Place cake mix, pudding, eggs, oil, water and rum in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Pour in prepared pan and bake for 1 hour.

While cake is baking, prepare glaze. Combine all glaze ingredients except rum in a saucepan and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and add the rum. When the cake is done, remove from the oven and pierce thoroughly with a toothpick. Immediately pour glaze over the top. Cool completely before removing the cake from the pan.*

For the baked in the cake itself, I used Mt. Gay Eclipse. For the rum glaze, I used a combination of Appleton V/X and St. James - like making a Trader Vic's Mai Tai. Believe it or not, the extra strength of that particular cake was a screw up. I made too much glaze and it soaked the cake. The recipe above is rather heavy handed on the internal rum and glaze rum. The end result was a super, almost too moist, alcohol stupor inducing center from where the rum glaze pooled.

If I were to do it again, I would want to use the glaze ratio from the key lime rum cake recipe. Not so strong for the regular folk with low tolerance.

Dogbytes, do you have any tricks for maneuvering the cake after you have glazed it outside of the pan? I was so afraid it would fall apart because it was getting rum mushy (too much glaze).

Oh yeah, make the cake at least a day before the usage so it soaks in real good. Like good Italian food, way better the next day.

Darn, we're gonna need a holiday gathering so I can attempt to "screw up" on the cake again. :wink:
Happy baking!

Great stuff! I never heard of most of these variations. The Key Lime Rum Cake sounds...uh, I wanna make one, NOW.

I was thinking of incorporating pineapple, or pineapple juice, into either the cake batter or a glaze for another rum cake variation. Does anyone know if this would work?

I got started on this whole thing about ten years ago. I went into a bakery near here and saw they had these slices of rum cake for $1.50. I had never tried it before. So I bought one. And when I got it home I realized it was soaked in rum glaze--looked like they had sliced it and poured a bunch of glaze over the slices, so they were surprisingly well-saturated. One slice seemed to contain an ounce of liquor. I was shocked they hadn't carded me before selling me the stuff!

[ Edited by: procinema29 2006-11-14 09:17 ]

A coworker gave me pretty much the same recipe that I dream of tiki posted though I modified the icing part so that the water is replaced with spiced rum and I added a little Curacao.
-1/4C water
+1/4C spiced rum
+1/8C (1 oz) Curacao

I find the added spice and orangy bit are quite to my liking and there's more rum in it.

Sporkboy

Banana Rum Cake
For the Cake:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1 ½ cups mashed banana
1/4 cup rum
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice
For the Glaze:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
6 tablespoons rum
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. Mix together the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, cream together butter, shortening and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the bananas. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, rum and lemon juice, mixing just until incorporated

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 90 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

In the meantime, make the glaze by combining sugar and butter. Let it boil for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in rum.

Allow the cake to cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn it out onto wire rack. While warm, prick the top of cake in many places with a toothpick. Pour the glaze over the warm cake. Cool completely before serving.

On 2006-11-13 17:13, Coco Loco wrote:
... I wonder how Zaya, Pirate, or even Appleton's would translate? I bet delicious. ...

Yummy!

I offer the following for your cake making consideration........

If the Rum is going into the cake and THEN the oven, do not use a 'good' rum. By cooking the good stuff you are going to loose a lot of what makes it the good stuff. This is one of those rare opportunites to use the less than premium stuff that has been gathering dust in the back of your bar and actually enjoy it.

However, if you are adding the rum to the cake AFTER it has been met the oven, pour away! I think the Pyrat would be wonderful when drizzled over the cake. And then drizzle a bit more just before you serve it.

Carry on, And share your recipes! I will post Andy's recipe for Rum Balls right after Thanksgiving.

These recipes just get more and more interesting.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

I made this version of the Rum Cake. It is pretty good I served it with whipping cream and I drizzled Myers dark rum on each piece before it was served.

Chocolate Rum Cake

2 sticks of salted butter
2 cups of dark brown sugar
5 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
6oz.to 1/3 cup of chocolate chips (I used 6oz.)
1 1/2 cups of flour.
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg (optional) (I used it)
walnuts (optional) ( I didn't use it)
1/2 to 1/3 cup of rum ( I used 1/2 cup of Pusser's

Preheat oven to 325
Butter and flour bundt pan ( I used Pam and flour)
Put chocolate chips in a double boiler, or in a bowl over a pot of boiling water (low to medium flame) to melt. ( stir occasionally)

Make Batter Base
Cream butter, and brown sugar together.
Add eggs to this mixture one at a time making sure to mix each one well.
Add 2 tsp. of vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together.
flour
baking powder
salt
cinnamon
nutmeg

Add about 1/2 cup of rum to melted chocolate and add butter base.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to mixture.
Add walnut.

Pour into prepared bundt pan. Bake until knife inserted in the center comes out clear. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top when cool.

Enjoy.

Wow, these are some great sounding rum cake recipes!-I am going to try dogbytes key lime rum cake soon. I make alot of plain poundcakes, & I think a bit (or alot) of rum put on top afterwards, is good. I have to admit, I tried Sailor Jerry's spiced rum last weekend (ok, I admit I bought it for the the cute deck of cards it came with) & I thought it was pretty good...I might try making some kind of almost-fruitcake (w/ dried fruits & nuts, & soaked w/ dark rum) for Xmas this year...

Found a ready-made Jamaica Rum Liqueur Cake at Raley's Supermarket. It is a product from Germany by Kuchen Meister. It is very moist and has a great dark rum flavor...yummy.....pay no attention to the calorie listing on the back of the box.

FATIMA BLUSH: Oh, how reckless of me. I made you all wet.

JAMES BOND: Yes, but my martini is still dry.

[ Edited by: VampiressRN 2007-01-14 16:16 ]

I found this in today's LA times newspaper, it sounds good since it has orgeat and lots of rum, check it out.

Peach upside-down rum cake

Total time: About 1 1/2 hours

Servings: 8 to 10

Note: If baking in a spring form pan, place a baking sheet on a rack near the bottom of the oven to catch any syrup that might drip.

2 pounds peaches (about 5 large), peeled

1 lemon, juiced (about 3 tablespoons)

3 tablespoons butter, plus 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, at room temperature, divided

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 3/4 cups (7.5 ounces) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon orgeat syrup (or almond extract)

3/4 cup dark rum

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut the peaches lengthwise into one-half-inch slices. Place the slices in a medium bowl, drizzle with lemon juice, and set aside.

3. In a large 10- to 12-inch skillet, preferably cast iron, melt 3 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and stir until melted and smooth, then add the honey. Lower the heat and add the peach slices, and stir until they are glossy, slightly soft and well-coated with the honey-sugar mixture, about 2 minutes. Remove the pan from heat. If you are baking the cake in the skillet, spread the peach and sugar mixture in a thick layer to the edges and set the pan aside to cool. If you are baking the cake in a springform pan, scrape and spread the peach and caramel mixture into a 9-inch round pan (line the base with parchment paper, to about one-half inch up the sides of the pan).

4. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the remaining butter and the sugar until it is pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one egg at a time, and the orgeat syrup and beat for a minute until well combined. Next, working in batches and alternating with the rum, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Begin with a bit of the dry ingredients and stir until just combined, then add a splash of the rum and stir until just combined, and so on — until all the ingredients are incorporated.

5. Dollop the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it as near as you can to the edges so that it covers the peaches. (Don't worry if it seems a little thick; it will fill in as it bakes.) Bake until the cake is golden and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes. (A springform cake will require additional time.)

6. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. If using a skillet, place a large plate over the top and carefully flip the pan so that the cake inverts onto the plate with the peaches on top. If using a springform pan, place a plate over the top of the pan, flip the pan over, release the spring mold, and peel back the parchment. Serve at room temperature.

[ Edited by: hiltiki 2010-08-12 11:26 ]