Rum Cake

For the last year, Steve has been begging politely asking me to make Rum Cake.  I don't really know why it took me so long, but I finally made him some using this recipe from Michelle over at the Brown Eyed Baker blog for Valentine's Day.  It was amazing and I've made three more Rum Cakes since then, yum!

The thing I love about this recipe is that the entire cake is made completely from scratch.  If you've ever made Rum Cake before, you might know that most recipes call for instant vanilla pudding mix and yellow cake mix.  I'm sure those recipes turn out well too, but I like to know every single ingredient that goes into the food we eat, and I'm sure there are a lot of things I'd rather not eat in the mixes.

Homemade Rum Cake

full recipe HERE

step one

Put your apron on and get ready to bake!

I was happy to spend the afternoon in the kitchen on

a nice lazy Sunday.  Tutka was very interested in the

entire process, and he paid especially close attention to the rum.

step two

Gather the ingredients you'll need, basically a whole lot of sugar, butter,

rum, eggs, and flour, with a little bit of corn starch, homemade pudding mix, 

baking powder, vanilla and canola oil.  Use the empty butter wrapper

to grease the bundt pan.  Flour the buttered pan and then chop up

some walnuts if you feel like it.  I've made cakes both with and without the nuts

and liked it (a lot) either way.

 step three

Prepare the batter as directed and pour it into the prepared pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 60 minutes.  While the cake bakes,

prepare the rum sauce (yum).  As soon as the cake comes out of the oven,

pour about one-third of the rum sauce over the entire cake.

You should go slowly so that it has time to soak in completely.

After five minutes invert the cake onto a serving platter and smother with

the rest of the sauce (or save a little bit for putting on each slice - your choice).

notes

I've made this cake with both organic white flour and with whole wheat flour.  The first picture is a cake using only white flour and the second picture is a cake using only whole wheat flour.  Both tasted amazing, just slightly different.  I'm not sure why there is a line running around the entire white-flour-cake, but I noticed it in the photos from the Brown Eyed Baker blog too.

In other news, Steve passed his final Journeyman test and I am just so incredibly proud of him and all the hard work he has put in over the last four and a half years.  He came home Monday after his last day of class (ever!) and worked in the garage for an hour or two. Riggs and I went out to keep him company, and Riggs was so excited to sit on Steve's snowmachine all by himself.  When I see Riggs and Steve together my heart just feels so full of love and happiness and pride and joy it nearly overwhelms me. I am so excited to see Riggs develop even more of a relationship with Steve as he grows into a boy and then man.