Rum Cake
Rum Cake – traditional rum cake from scratch – no mixes. Light & fluffy topped with chopped pecans and soaked in a reduced sugared rum glaze. So good you will want to eat the whole thing.
Boozy rum cake – Oh YES!!!
Let me tell you about this cake and how delightful it is. It is adapted from Carole Walter’s, absolutely BEST yellow cake. I guess when you label a cake the absolute best cake you are bound to get a lot of people poking at the recipe. What I have to say is that it is sooo good – definitely a keeper.
Though it is quite good I made a few adjustments for you to make; it tastes even better.
Your girl can’t help herself. Guaranteed to please! I reduced the sugar to 1 ¾ cups and upped the flavor with rum and nutmeg. Yes, I love nutmeg, you may leave it out, if desired.
Okay let’s keep going, what makes this cake worthy? The texture – buttery, and fluffy – one that would have made my home economics teacher leap with joy.
Now, if only I had this recipe when I was taking my finals in school, just maybe, I would have gotten an A in her class. Sadly though, I had a B.
Can rum cake make you drunk?
Rum reminds a lot of people of the holidays and the holidays is just around the corner! Woohoo!!! And that means baking season is in full swing including the boozy baked goods.
And now you ask, can rum cake or boozy treats in general, make you drunk? Well, most people (including me), believe that when you infuse alcohol into your recipe, it’ll be cooked off since it is baked. But it is possible to get drunk from excessive consumption of alcohol-infused baked goods.
You can get tipsy or completely intoxicated if it contains more than 5 percent of alcohol by volume, like the Tortuga rum cake, and also depending on your consumption and alcohol tolerance. Moreover, you’ll totally feel the rum kick, especially if you add the booze AFTER it has finished baking.
Rum Cake Glaze
If for some reason you really do not want to be bothered with rum, you can ice it or use simple syrup (you can find the recipe HERE) to make it moist. Without rum, it is not a moist cake- just tender. To tell you the truth, I love it with or without the sauce.
But if you’re willing to play around with it, you can try it with vanilla or chocolate glaze OR both (why not? 😉 ) using the glaze recipe from my Chocolate Rum Marble Cake.
There you have it! I hope you’re already looking forward for the holiday season with this decadent and insanely delicious rum cake with rum glaze. If you want more “rummy” flavor, go ahead! I won’t tell anyone. 😉
Enjoy!
Tips and Notes
- Adding rum to your batter adds a more deep brown color and flavor.
- If you don’t want to infuse it with a rum glaze, you can use my simple syrup recipe HERE. Or top it with vanilla or chocolate glaze OR both using the glaze recipe from my Chocolate Rum Marble Cake.
- Be sure to let the cake cool for about 5-10 minutes before removing from the pan. And proceeding with the next steps.
- You can use a large bundt pan or use two 8-inch pan. If using two baking pans, reduce the baking time by 10-15 minutes.
Watch How to Make It
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Rum Cake
Ingredients
- 10 ounce unsalted butter
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 4 Large eggs
- 1/3 cup powdered milk
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 -3 Tablespoons dark rum
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cup pecans
- RUM GLAZE
- 4 ounce butter
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 3-4 Tablespoons dark rum
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 160°C/325°F.
- Cream together the butter and sugar at high speed in a stand mixture until it’s fluffy and starting to look white, about 5- 7 minutes.
- Stir in the eggs, a one at a time, beating the mixture well between each one and adding a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent the batter from curdling.
- Add in the flour , powder milk and baking powder into the batter, alternating with the milk –until fully absorbed by the mixture.
- Then add , nutmeg, rum and vanilla extract
- Stir well until everything is fully combined. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.
- Greased a 10 inch bottomed tube pan, then add chopped pecans
- Pour batter into a bundt plan , on top of the pecans.
- Bake at 325 until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 55-60 minutes. Remove from the oven.
Rum Glaze
- In a small saucepan combine butter, sugar, rum and water over medium heat. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes stirring constantly to prevent any burns. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
- Poke little holes into the cake with a toothpick or skewer . Spoon the syrup over the cake and let it soak in. Let the cake cool to room temperature before serving
Tips & Notes:
- You can use a large bundt pan or use two 8 inch pans as I did. If you use one baking pan you should extend the baking time.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
Nutrition Information:
How to Make Rum Cake
Pre-heat the oven to 160°C/325°F. Cream together the butter and sugar at high speed in a stand mixture until it’s fluffy and starting to look white, about 5- 7 minutes. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, beating the mixture well between each one and adding a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent the batter from curdling.
Add in the flour, powder milk and baking powder into the batter, alternating with the milk –until fully absorbed by the mixture.
Then add , nutmeg, and vanilla extract. Stir well until everything is fully combined. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.
Greased a 10 -inch bottomed tube pan, then add chopped pecans.
Pour batter into a bundt plan, on top of the pecans. Bake at 325 F until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 55-60 minutes. Remove from the oven.
In a small saucepan combine butter, sugar, rum and water over medium heat. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes stirring constantly to prevent any burns. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Poke little holes into the cake with a toothpick or skewer . Spoon the syrup over the cake and let it soak in. Let the cake cool to room temperature before serving.
Your recipes always yield great results. This was no exception. Yet another immaculate bite.
Thank you :)!
Hi I’m planning on making it this weekend. What kind of milk and flour did you use? I’m guessing plain flower and maybe skimmed milk? Please correct me if I’m wrong, thank you 🙂
*flour
You can use whatever milk you have. I prefer whole fat, but you can even use coconut milk. The flour is all-purpose, no need to worry.:)Please let me know how it goes.
Thank you for another fabulous recipe! I used single barrel rum and couldn’t resist adding a caramel rum sauce.
Great combo, thanks for sharing:)
I usually do not do reviews but I had to comment on this recipe. I always wanted to know the recipe for rum cake. This cake turned out great as all the recipes I have tried. Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you so much, Tracine! 🙂
Hi Imma, what dark rum brand do you use?
Hi Katrina. Usually, I would use whatever dark rum I have at hand. As long as it is not light rum since dark rum has a more intense flavor.
Thanks for sharing the recipe. Clicking “reply” was the only way I could find to comment in here. I made this and mine came out fine but had a dense spongy like texture. I’m not sure if that was from all the eggs or something else but I did not care for the texture. I was hoping for more of a cake like texture (though maybe the sponginess was what better helped it to absorb the added rum at the end…?). It tasted fine other then that. I made mine in muffin pans to cut the time down. I tried a dash or two of nutmeg and some with cinnamon in some of the muffins to see if it would be something I would like. I personally did not like the nutmeg (though it did remind me of egg nog). But I did like the cinnamon. The ones without any spices didn’t have much flavor by itself just sort of sweet and spongy. But obviously 😉 adding the rum on top made them taste even better.
Hi Moriah,
So sorry to hear this .This cake is moist on it’s own- without the rum syrup. Really don’t know what went wrong , without actually being there.
Could I use powdered buttermilk in place of powdered milk? Powdered milk is surprisingly hard to find here and I don’t have time to order.
Yes you can. The powdered buttermilk works just fine.
Not NEARLY enough rum in this cake or the sauce! Dry and boring! I followed the recipe exactly. Epic Fail.
Failure…..followed the recipe and my cake never rose.
Sorry to hear about that. Make sure you double check your baking powder. This recipe works , have made it several times with good results.
Add more rum. It won’t be as dry. My experience is that a cake that is a little dry will soak up more sauce. The “dryer” up front, the “saucier” afterward. I haven’t had problems with this bread.
Your Blog is absolutely wonderful! So colorful & detailed a true step by step and the photo guidance & much appreciated and so pretty! Thank you for investing so much time into testing the recipes and for your hard work with your site!
I have watched some of your videos and I find this very amusing. I would love to purchase one or more of your produce and hence would love to how to go about it. I live and work in Lekki.
I would like to know if you can use the eagle brand substitute for the powdered milk as well as the regular milk? Are the amounts of the eagle brand the same?
Hello,
Yes it works just fine . Same amount for both powdered and regular milk
Can you use rum extract?
It depends. Do you want to completely eliminate the rum butter syrup?
Your recipe sounds great and will try but when do you add rum to cake??????? Not mentioned in directions at all!!!!!!!!
Hi. Thanks for pointing it out. Updated the recipe. The video shows you add rum to the batter before the vanilla extract. It’s also optional (if you don’t wnt your cake to be too “rummy”) since the glaze already has rum in it, too.
Recipe and pics of cake look absouletly devine. Can I substitute the powdered milk with eagle brand milk or evaporated milk? If so, which would be the best?
Thank you. Yes, eagle brand milk works fine.
Hello couple of question on your run cake. 1. Do u used cake flour?
2. Can u used pet or eagle brand milk?
Hi Frances ,
In this recipe I used all purpose flour. Yes, you can use pet or eagle brand milk. Happy baking !!!
Hello. Can this recipe be converted for cup cakes?
Just a question here: can this be made in a half sheet, if I adjust the recipe to about 3 times?
Hi Rebekah. I can’t exactly give an answer to that since I haven’t tried it. But as per my experience, you can use two baking pans with this recipe and just reduce the baking time by 10-15 minutes. I don’t know if this helps, but I hope it does somehow. Let me know how it works for you.
I am planning on making this recipe for easter. What kind od powdered milk did you use?
Thank you in advance.
Hi Fran, Any powdered milk would work. I used whole milk, nonfat works as well.
Happy Easter!!
Can I bake the cake a day before the party then put the rum sauce the next day??
Hi Kathy. Yes, you sure can. Just place the cake in an airtight container and store in a room temperature or in the fridge.
Irma is the flour for the rum cake paladin or self rising flour for the rum cake.!
Thanks
Shirley
Hello shirley, It’s plain flour
I love your recipes. The Rum Cake is a winner.
Can I use different types of rum (spiced or cinnamon)?
You sure can.
Can you use fireball?
Hi, Dierdre. I haven’t tried fireball but I don’t see why it won’t work. Please do let me know how it turned out for you.
Can this recipe be converted for cup cakes?
Yes it can. Adjust cooking times to about 15-22 minutes.