Rum Cake
By: Michael Toa
Tags: Rum, Cake, Cayman Islands, Recipe, Baking

I recently went back to the Cayman Islands. Pretty good timing I’d say, escaping a little bit of Canadian winter and it was really nice seeing dear old friends and catching up with them. It was truly nice being back at my other home. After living for nearly five years there, still hard not to think of the island as home. But I also love playing tourist. If you’re interested to see my pale self in the sun, you can check out my Instagram page (@michael_toa).

I went back to many food places I love there; and one of the must try if you ever come to visit is rum cake. Many stores sell them and at my old workplace, we would have them all the time. The cake is tender and soaked in buttery rum syrup.

My home version is simple and lighter in a way. I don’t add butter (*gasp, I know) to my glaze and instead a squeeze of lemon for freshness. I use local spiced rum from the Cayman Islands, but any gold rum would do. I never use white rum for this, and please no imitation rum. Just no.

The cake method is very straightforward. You start with a creaming method of butter and sugar before adding the eggs one at a time. Then you alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients. This will ensure the wet ingredient, in this case, the buttermilk is absorbed nicely into the batter.

What promises the cake to be tender is buttermilk. The tartness of buttermilk also adds a pleasing, subtle tang to the cake. I don’t often buy buttermilk unless I know I’ll be using a lot of it, since at my local groceries, buttermilk comes in a large container. The amount needed for this cake isn’t much and buttermilk usually doesn’t have a long shelf-life. I don’t like to waste food or any ingredients. So, if the case is the same for you, you could make your own buttermilk. For every cup of milk, add a tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice. Give it a stir and let it stand for five minutes or so.

For the baking, I use an ornate bundt tin simply for an aesthetic reason. You can simply use a regular cake tin. Either one, just be sure to grease the tin well and also line with parchment if using a regular cake tin.

Rum Cake

Makes 1 cake

150 gr butter, soft and unsalted

265 gr sugar

3 eggs

250 gr plain flour

5 gr baking powder

5 gr baking soda

a pinch of salt

10 gr vanilla extract

200 gr buttermilk, see note above

For the rum glaze:

75 gr sugar

75 gr water

50 gr gold rum

a squeeze of lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Using a free-standing or hand-held mixer, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

In a bowl, mix the plain flour, baking powder, baking soda and a pinch of salt. You could sieve it, but I am lazy. I just use a whisk to incorporate them.

When the butter and sugar are light, add the eggs, one at a time. Stopping and scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula with each addition. Then add the vanilla.

With the mixer running slow, add a third of the dry ingredients, then half of the buttermilk, another third of the flour, the remaining milk and lastly the rest of the flour. This method will ensure the liquid will be thoroughly absorbed into the batter.

Give the batter one last scrape with a spatula, and pour into your greased (and lined) baking tin of choice. Bake in the preheated oven for 35–40 minutes or until the cake is golden, coming away from the sides and a cake tester comes out clean. Let it cool slightly for 5–10 minutes before taking it out from the tin.

In the meantime make the glaze. In a small pot over medium heat, cook the sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved. Let the syrup bubble away for a couple minutes before adding the rum and a squeeze of lemon juice. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Invert the cake to a platter and whilst the cake and syrup are warm, drizzle or brush the syrup onto the cake. The cake will absorb the syrup better when it’s still warm. Cut into slices and enjoy.