Rum cake from scratch – there’s no pudding or cake mix involved and it’s even more delicious than the cake mix version! Can be made with all-purpose flour or with whole wheat pastry flour for a 100% whole grain version.
The special thing about this rum cake, other than being the most awesome rum cake ever, is that you don’t need a bunch of processed junk to make it. Most rum cakes call for cake mix and pudding mix, neither of which I really want to use.
I remember when I moved to Germany, where we don’t have the same cake and pudding mixes, 6 years ago and spent hours looking for a rum cake recipe from scratch. No luck.
But Alejandra from Always Order Dessert has solved that problem with her rum cake from scratch! Now the whole world can enjoy rum cake. :)
The original recipe calls for 1 cup of homemade pudding mix. The recipe for the pudding mix yields 2 1/2 cups and since I didn’t want any pudding mix left over, I scaled down the pudding recipe to what was needed just for the rum cake and it worked perfectly!
I also wanted to try subbing coconut oil for the vegetable oil in the original but I chickened out and used olive oil. Since coconut oil is solid at room temperature (at least in cold winter kitchens), I was worried that it’d make the cake too firm.
If you taste the batter and can taste the olive oil, don’t panic! The olive taste bakes away, or perhaps it’s just all the rum in the syrup that totally covers it up.
The first time I made this rum cake, I made it for a birthday party that I wasn’t even going to, and it smelled so unbelievably amazing that I had to cut into it. And then I cut into it some more.
And then we just cut the cake into slices, made some whoopsie-I-ate-most-of-the-cake-brownies and Mr. Texanerin brought a few cake pieces to the party.
This cake is so ridiculously boozy. Some folks don’t like a strong alcohol taste in their goodies. Not me. I want my cake to be swimming in booze.
If you love boozy desserts, you also have to try my Irish cream brownies. There’s 3/4 cup of Baileys in there!
And this thing is SO moist. I suppose that’s not too surprising considering the amount of butter that goes into it. In addition to what’s in the cake, you also make a butter rum syrup, poke holes in the cake, and then you pour the syrup all over it.
If a whole bundt cake is too much for you, check out my Irish cream bundt cake. It’s basically this recipe, halved to fit a 6-cup bundt pan, and with Irish cream. Just use rum instead and you’ll have yourself a cute little bundt cake. :)
Totally from Scratch Rum Cake (with a 100% whole grain option)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 12-15 servings
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup (219 grams) all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup (55 grams) dry milk powder (whole milk or fat-free work)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (42 grams) cornstarch
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (112 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 3/4 cups (350 grams) granulated or raw sugar
- 1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons (160 milliliters) olive oil (canola oil or another vegetable oil would work, too, but I don't recommend coconut oil)
- 3/4 cup (177 milliliters) milk
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (177 milliliters) dark rum
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (112 grams) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (120 milliliters) water
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated or raw sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (120 milliliters) dark rum
Cake:
Rum Syrup:
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 325°F (162°C). Spray a 12-cup bundt pan very well with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, dry milk powder, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Set this aside.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy. Add the dry flour mix to this. It will resemble fine crumbs.
- In the bowl that just had the flour mix, whisk together the oil, milk, eggs, rum, and vanilla extract. Add this to the crumb mixture and beat until well combined. The batter will be quite thin.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 48-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- When there are about 15 minutes remaining on the timer, start the butter rum syrup. In a large saucepan over medium heat, heat the butter, water, sugar and salt until the sugar has dissolved, stirring occasionally. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the rum (it'll bubble).
- Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then invert onto a wire rack. Wash and dry the bundt pan and place the cake back into the pan. Poke holes into the cake (I used a meat thermometer to do this) and pour the syrup slowly over the cake. Let soak for 1-2 hours and then invert the cake back onto a serving platter. Cover and store at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
- For German bakers: German flour and American all-purpose are not interchangeable but I've had great luck using 50 grams Type 550 and 169 grams Type 405 in this cake. You could also try whole spelt but I think it'd taste a little whole grainy.
Adapted from Rum Cake from Scratch on Always Order Dessert
This post was originally posted in 2012. Here’s the original picture for kicks and giggles. :D
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274 comments on “Rum Cake from Scratch – The Best Ever!” — Add one!
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Hi, the crystallized sugar is what made me click! I can’t wait to try this one for Valentine’s Day! Thanks ;)
I hope you’ll like it! :)
Erin, THANK YOU so much for your delicious Rum Cake recipe. I asked my son and my grandson what dessert they would like for tomorrow (Thanksgivng). Rum Cake was the unanimous choice. Yours looked so good I thought I would try it. I made one from another recipe for the Fall Festival. This on far surpassed it!!! Looking forward to more of your recipes. Thanks again! Mary
Hi, Mary! So sorry for the slow reply. I’ve had a bit of a comment issue. I’m happy that you liked the cake! Your son and grandson must have been thrilled to get a rum cake for Thanksgiving. I know I would have been! ;) Thanks so much for the feedback!
I’m so excited to make this! This will be my first bundt cake and I’m shopping for a pan. Do you think this would work?: http://amzn.to/16BHh4E If so, would the rum syrup keep the two sides stay together? Hope you can help me! Thanks!!
I think it would work but I’m not positive since I haven’t tried it! And that’s a cute pan. Let me know how it goes and good luck. :)
I wondered if you think brown sugar could be used in the "glaze."
I don't see why not. It would definitely taste a little different. More like brown sugar and less like rum. Good luck! :)
Holy, this looks decadent! My mother in law makes an incredible boozy chocolate cake but my hubby doesn't do chocolate cake. I'm thinking he would love this :D Forget him though, I think I would love this :D
Erin, thank you so much! we made THE rum cake over the holidays, and it's indeed the best thing. We wish we had a proper bundt pan though, since we ended up with sooo much batter, and had to use a banana-bread baking pan plus about 10 muffin forms. Plenty of rum cake:) absolutely loving it. Check out how ours turned out: http://fromblck.blogspot.dk/2013/01/the-rum-cake.html
Happy New Year!
Hi ladies! I'm so happy you enjoyed it. I was ecstatic to get your comment! Not only because you made it, but because only a few people actually saw this post that I thought it'd quickly be forgotten and never enjoyed by anyone. So thank you! And thank you as always for your feedback. I really appreciate it! Going to check out your post now. :)
I can't say I've ever had an experience in which I ate the cake I made for someone else's birthday, so I suppose that means that this cake is extra delicious – it sure looks that way! I'm not normally a fan of boozy cake, but I might just make an except for this one!
Well, it wasn't like a birthday cake. Just something extra as part of the present. :) So she got brownies instead! And if you're not a fan of boozy cake, then maybe this isn't for you. It's the booziest cake ever! But I admire your openness to this cake. ;)
Sally, Perhaps if you provided me with your address and preference I just might ship you a box or two of Chex cereal. Re: Puppy chow
Hi! I think you meant this for me because Sally has tons of Chex cereal. :) That is such an incredibly lovely offer but unfortunately it's very expensive to send packages over here. I'll be in the US in June and I will most definitely pick up a few boxes then because I can't wait to make puppy chow! I've never had any version of it and seeing it everywhere on the internet drives me a little crazy. Thank you again for your extremely kind offer! I was actually taken a little aback. Thank you and may you have a wonderful new year!
going out with a bang. YES indeed. Kinda like my peanut butter brownies today Erin. I onestly do not think that I've seen a more moist or soft or buttery cake recipe ever – I want to reach right through the screen! I freaking LOVE rum cakes!
Oh, thank you! And yes. This is the rum cake recipe to end all rum cake recipes. Soooo buttery and moist. And I love your enthusiasm. Thank you. :)
The fact that you want your cake to taste like booze and have it be front & center and not in the background – yes!!! I made rum cake balls about 2-3 yrs ago for a post based on a recreation of rum cake my hubs and I ate in Grand Cayman. We ate enough cake to get tipsy – now that's plenty of cake :) But it WAS pretty strongly doused in rum. I love everything about this cake from the moistness to the rum glaze to the butter!
Ooh, I definitely need to check those out! Rum cake balls. I've never actually made cake balls but rum cake balls sound worth trying!
That rum syrup sounds buttery and delicious, perfect for a bundt!
I still have some left in the fridge but I don't know what to do with it. It's just not the same without the cake. ;)
I had a similar story with a bund cake for Christmas last year. In the end I had to bake another one :D Rum cake sounds wow. I do like rum :D Happy New Year to Mr and Mrs Texanerin!
Thank you and Happy New Year's to you two as well! Oh, sorry. You three. :) What are you going to do? All I know is I'm making cake!
That's so funny that the cake went from a cake to several pieces for the party…sounds like something I would totally do!! We had a nice Christmas and hope you did too!! xoxo
Haha. Well I *had* to try it. How does one know if it's sendable unless you try it?!
hahaha swimming in booze…the perfect cake to end 2012…or begin 2013 eating a slice with a glass of bubbly :-)
Or a glass of rum. :D
Baaahhh this looks so awesome!!
Thanks!
I can't get over how moist this looks. Sounds so good!
The moistness was definitely a huge plus. :)
Holly smokes this cake for sure is using butter and sugar ;-) Well why not? It is the end of the year, is not like you bake like that all the time, plus indulging once in a while is perfectly ok. Just don't eat the cake all at once ;-) and you are right, I don't think there is any point in making this cake healthy! Merry Christmas and happy new year!!
Oh no, you caught me being naughty. :D I feel like I've been caught! And if Sonia sees this, I'll feel like I'm really in trouble. :) I'm kind of sick of sweets so I have no desire to eat the entire second cake. Happy New Year to you, too!
So glad you went out with a bang because I am definitely going to try and squeeze this in before 1/1! And no, I'm not sharing.
Haha, that's the spirit. I hope you get the chance to make it! It's sooo good.
This cake looks absolutely delicious! Why must all desserts with alcohol look so dang good? I mean come ON. Not fair. :P
You're with family right now, right? So make it for them! I'm sure they'll fully support your decision to make this cake + provide you with the alcohol. :D
This cake sounds incredible Erin, definitely worth splurging on!
I most definitely agree with you! :)