Simple Rum Cake (with Rum Syrup)

Ever wonder what the heck to do with all the leftover alcohol you have in the house after a party? Quite a few of my more recent kitchen adventures were borne of the need to eliminate the leftovers from our Halloween party this year. Having only some Bacardi, and not the dark rum usually used in cakes, I decided to play fast and loose with whatever recipe sounded good and just see how it turned out. It's one of those chuck-it-all-in-a-bowl-and-stir recipes that I'm quite fond of.

I still don't think this is perfect, and I will continue to work out the kinks, but it's a lovely, rich, heavyish cake if you just want to sit down with a large chunk of something to nibble on. It feels like a Sunday afternoon cake and tastes even better when made on a Saturday and left out overnight for the syrup to soak through ;)

The original recipe can be found here, I've edited it a little.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup dark rum (you can get away with light rum)

1/4 cup banana liqueur (I've always substituted rum here)

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup whipping cream

Rum Syrup (recipe below this one)

Powdered sugar

Method:

1. Beat butter and granulated sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla, beating until blended. Gradually add the rum and banana liqueur, beating until blended. The batter will look curdled at this point - that's normal.

2. Stir together the flour, baking powder and baking soda; add to the batter alternately with the whipping cream, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat the batter at a low speed just until blended after each addition.

3. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 10-inch Bundt cake tin. Don't panic if you don't have a Bundt tin. I compensate by filling a clean, used tin can with dried beans (or pie beads for blind baking pie crusts if you have them) and placing it in the middle of a regular cake tin. This cake is a little heavy so if you don't have a Bundt tin and don't fancy the can method, I'd recommend using a fan oven and keeping a close eye or putting the cake on the lowest shelf of the oven covered with foil for the first 30-40 mins of baking.

4. Bake at 350°F/180°C for 55 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

5. Cool in the tin on a wire rack for 15 minutes before turning out. Pierce the cake multiple times using a wooden skewer and pour the Rum Syrup evenly over the cake. It will look as though you have too much syrup, but allow it to soak in and then keep adding more - and ensure that you have pierced the cake multiple times to allow the syrup to run through. Dust with powdered sugar to serve.

Rum Syrup Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons rum

Method:

1. Boil sugar and water for 5 minutes.

2. Add butter, rum and vanilla - stirring continuously.

3. Continue to boil for 8-10 minutes. It won't look syrupy until after it has cooled on the cake.