Rum cakes are not well known outside of the Caribbean or Southern USA. This is a more American style rum cake similar to the one I had growing up on summer holidays cruising the Caribbean. They never lasted any time with me greedily hoarding them and sneeking back into the shop to get another sample.
When choosing your rum go for a golden or navy rum. Spiced rums are experimental as, depending on the botanics and spices used, you can get an unpleasant cake. A dark spiced rum would work well if you added cocoa powder and dried rasins (soaked in coffee or rum). Alternatively, you could use a rum based bannana liquor.
For this recipe you need a Bundt tin about 15cm in diameter. You can make a larger cake and increase the cooking time slightly but remember this is a rich cake.
Serves: 4
Time: 40 minutes
Difficulty: Straight Forward
Cake
50g of Soft Light Brown Sugar
60g of Self Raising Flour
1 Egg
30ml of Vegetable Oil
25ml of Milk
1/2 tablespoon of Cornflour
Pinch of Salt
1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract (optional)
Syrup
20ml Rum
20g of Soft Light Brown Sugar
20ml of Water
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Mix the cornflour, salt and flour.
3.Whisk together the oil, milk, vanilla, sugar for the cake and egg.
4. Mix both mixtures together with a mixer for 2 minutes until smooth.
5. Grease a small Bundt tin. Pour the mixture into the tin.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
7. Meanwhile in a saucepan heat all the ingrediants for the syrup together until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the syrup from the heat.
8. Once the cake has cooled for 10 minutes poke 12 holes with a skewer into the cake. Keep it in the mould.
9. Pour over the rum syrup.
10. Leave to cool completely and then place in an air tight container.
11. Leave to infuse for 1 day before serving.
Recipes from my kitchen, Edinburgh, Scotland 