Rum Cake

I was beginning to forget when I had last baked something that didn’t have shredded zucchini in it. I think that must have been what drove me to finally make this cake, but I don’t remember that for sure either. And I hadn’t even been drinking any of the rum.

This all started with a bottle of spiced rum purchased from Door County Distillery while on vacation in Wisconsin. Harry bought it and described its sharp, clean, lightly spiced flavor. “I will make it into a cake,” I said.

Now, my mother in law is the undisputed Queen of Rum Cake. Her recipe has crossed family lines and become a favorite in my family, too. It makes a comforting cake with just the right sweetness and punch of rum. All that good stuff being said, this is not her rum cake recipe. You’ll have to acquire that another way.

What this is, however, is a fluffy Bundt cake redolent with rum and glazed with a sugary butter-rum coating. It’s an adaptation of a bourbon cake with simple ingredients and no fancy techniques. It’s made with cake flour so it is especially soft, like, softer than I expected it could be. While I like this cake very well all on its own where its fluffy texture and bittersweet rum aroma can be especially appreciated, it was also very good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or with sliced peach sautéed in butter, brown sugar, and more spiced rum.

I think you could swap other liquors or liqueurs for the rum (including, of course, bourbon), but I’d recommend using one with a flavor you like quite a lot. The rum is a big part of the taste of the cake, and anything you substitute for it would be, too. There isn’t much room for mix-ins, since the cake does fill a 10-cup Bundt pan, but if you want to add nuts or chocolate, you could try a larger pan. You certainly could add spices, especially if you really want to play up the spiced rum quality of your rum.

 

This has been a delicious dessert and a welcome change from compulsory zucchini-patch-to-table baking. If you like boozy cakes, this one really is for you. It’s also for you if you like easy cakes. It may even be for you if you just like cake. I know it works for me!

Glazed Rum Cake

Adapted from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson

For the cake:

12 ounces cake flour (3 cups)

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon fine salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup light or golden rum or spiced rum

1 cup buttermilk

For the glaze:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

¾ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup light or golden rum or spiced rum

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare a 10-cup Bundt pan by coating it with cooking spray or soft butter and coating the spray or butter with flour. Set aside.

2. In a medium-size bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk or sift together to combine well. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the 2 sticks butter, 1 ½ cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Beat at medium to medium-high speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Give this time, about 3-5 minutes. Scrape any lumps of butter from the sides of the bowl and the paddle as you go to make sure they are incorporated.

4. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition to incorporate each egg. Beat in the vanilla extract.

5. In a measuring cup or a small bowl, combine ¼ cup rum and buttermilk. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until just combined. Add half the buttermilk mixture and beat it in. Repeat with the remaining flour and buttermilk mixture, ending with the flour mixture.

6. Spoon or pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Bake at 350 F for 45-55 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out without any wet batter attached.

7. When the cake is about 10 minutes from being finished, make the glaze. Combine the 6 tablespoons butter, ¾ cup sugar, and ¼ cup rum in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted, the sugar is dissolved, and the mixture is smooth.

8. When the cake is finished baking, leave it in the pan and place it on a wire cooling rack. Poke deep holes in the cake using a wooden skewer or chopstick. Slowly pour about ¾ of the hot glaze over the hot cake. Set the remaining glaze aside.

9. Cool the cake in the pan for 30 minutes. Invert the cake onto a serving plate or cake stand and remove it from the pan. (I find that the center of the pan tends to stick more than the outer edges, so I take special care to run a thin knife around that section between the cake and the pan to help release the cake.) Warm the remaining glaze over low heat. Brush the hot glaze over the outside of the cake. Let cool completely.

Makes 10-12 servings. This cake freezes well when wrapped in airtight packaging.

Other recipes like this one: Glazed Orange Pound Cake, Glazed Apple Walnut Cake, Plum Upside-Down Yogurt Cake, Simple Vanilla Yogurt Cake

One year ago: Grilled Tomatillo Salsa

Rum-Spiked Date Bars

“Why is the rum gone?” – Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

 

 

No, in this post’s title I’m not talking about establishments of questionable character peopled by patrons of equally questionable character and their companions for the evening in whom they hope to induce a state of inebriation and consequent personal benefit. I don’t even know anything about those things. Really. And until recently I knew almost as little about the crumbly yet gooey cut-out-of-a-pan-in-a-rectangular-fashion cookie known as date bars.

 

I can’t remember how long ago I made these bars. Two weeks? Could it be three? It was well before Thanksgiving, anyway, but it seems reasonably appropriate to tell you about them now as I’m thinking about letting my Squash Certificate expire and renewing my seasonal License to Cookie.

This is my little spin on a classic date bar recipe as I found it in Bon Appetit Desserts by Barbara Fairchild. This was kind of a bold move for me, since I’m not really that “into” alcohol. (How many times have I said that on these pages, only to allow a good recipe to make a liar out of me?) I even passed over the golden colored dark rum in the cupboard and reached for the more intensely flavored black spiced rum. To ensure that the rum flavor did not boil away as I cooked and infused the dates, and armed with the success of these eggnog muffins, I added a splash of rum extract as well.

 

It’s hard for me to say just how much the rum extract achieved in terms of flavor in the case of these bars. The black spiced rum I used (Kraken brand…can I admit I bought it for the label?) gave the date layer a darkly rich and pleasantly bitter tone, and, since I didn’t test the recipe without the extract, I’m not sure which source of rum flavor was the dominant one. Much like someone who has enjoyed enough rum, however, I don’t really care.

This is not to say that these bars are all about the rum, however. They are delightfully sweet and gooey with a delicious caramel flavor contributed by the dates and by the brown sugar in the surrounding buttery crust and topping layers. Those crust and topping layers, which have a fabulous taste and texture themselves, seemed to be too crumbly to hold together when I pressed them into the pan, but there’s enough butter in the mix (yum!) to hold the dry ingredients together as they bake and the date layer is sticky enough to help keep things in place.

 

In addition to just leaving the rum out (see headnote in the recipe below) I think this recipe could go in many different directions with some simple substitutions and/or additions. How about orange liqueur with the dates and some orange zest in the crust, for example? Or what about a dried apricot version with amaretto? Could this go on long enough that I could be content with simply making all the various versions of these bars that I could think of, eschewing any other type of cookie? …Don’t count on it!
 

Date Bars with Spiced Rum

If you wish to make these without the rum, you can replace it with an equal amount of water and replace the rum extract with additional vanilla extract.

1 ½ cups chopped pitted dates

1 cup water
½ cup black spiced rum (I used Kraken brand), or rum of your choice
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon rum extract

1. Combine the dates, water and rum in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently until the dates are very soft and the mixture is thick and syrupy. This should take about 15 minutes, but rely on texture more than time. Remove from the heat and cool completely.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare an 8-inch square baking pan by spraying it with nonstick spray or smearing it with butter.

3. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Pulse a few times to combine well. Add the cut-up butter and pulse several times until the mixture is just starting to form moist clumps. Make sure the butter gets evenly distributed by stopping the processor and stirring the bottom of the mixture to the top if necessary.

4. Press about half of the flour mixture firmly into the bottom of the prepared baking pan to form a crust layer. Stir the rum and vanilla extracts into the cooled date mixture and spread the date mixture over the top of the crust layer. Top with the remaining flour mixture and press gently into place.

5. Bake until the edges are brown and the center is set, about 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into squares to serve.

Makes 16-20 servings.

Another recipe like this one: Graham Cracker Almond Bars

One year ago: Beans and Rice Stuffed Squash, Cranberry Sauce with Persimmons and Spice, Brown Rice Salad with Walnuts, Pears and Blue Cheese