Baking for Beginners: Rum-dum-dum-dum-dum Cake

It is a rather dangerous walk home from town for me. Not in the criminal kind of way but in the oooh-there’s-a-pretty-cooking-shop kind of way. I can spend hours browsing the shelves of utensils and fancy cake tins. Most of the time my budget constraints keep me safe but last week I treated myself to bundt tin for a bargain price of £10. A rather nifty purchase I think, because surely cake tastes better when there’s a hole in the middle? OK, that’s doughnuts. But pretty shaped cake is also rad. 

This rum cake is definitely for the grown-ups as it is laden with lots of gooey rum glaze and there is none of that cooking off the booze in this recipe. It is a rather easy to cake to make. You just take a rather regular chocolate cake and drizzle soak it in rum. And the rum keeps the cake moist and lasting for days. That’s if you don’t gobble it all up first!

Put a bit of booze into your cake this Christmas with this Rum-dum-dum-dum-dum Cake.

Rum Cake

You will need:

• Bundt or ring tin

For the cake

• 60g Butter
• 60g Dark Chocolate
• 120g Caster Sugar
• 1/2tsp Vanilla extract
• 3 Eggs, lightly beaten
• 225g Plain Flour
• 1tsp Baking Powder
• 6tbsp Milk
• 20g Icing Sugar (for dusting)
• Tacky Christmas Cake Decorations

For the glaze

• 100g Butter
• 60ml Water
• 150g Sugar
• 120ml Rum

Make it!

1. In a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water melt together the butter, chocolate and sugar. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. In a large bowl sift the flour and then whisk in the chocolate mixture, vanilla extract and the eggs. Add the milk to loosen up the mixture. 
3. Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake in a preheated oven at 190C for 20 minutes, or until springy to touch.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes in the tin before transferring to a wire cooling rack with a large baking sheet underneath.
5. Meanwhile prepare the rum glaze. In a small saucepan melt the butter before stirring in the water and sugar. Allow to boil for 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Remove from the heat and pour in the rum. Stir well.
6. The cake should be warm to touch. Take a clean skewer or toothpick and prick the cake all over. Then spoon the syrup over the whole cake. Some of the syrup will drip down onto the baking sheet. Pour this back into the syrup bowl and keep on with the process of spooning the glaze all over the cake. Do this a few times. 
7. Allow the cake and glaze to cool completely, at least 2 hours.
8. Dust with icing sugar and choose a suitably tacky Christmas decoration to adorn your boozy cake.
9. Serve with lashings of extra thick cream or Hazel's Salted Caramel Sauce.