Bermudian Rum Cake

I’ve actually had a Bermudian rum cake in Bermuda, but I’d never made my own until now. This one is from The Greyston Bakery Cookbook. It’s similar to a holiday cake that gets soaked in a liquor-filled glaze only this is much simpler. In this case, you only apply the glaze once rather than several times over days or weeks, and the cake batter is one of the easiest ever to whisk together. The rum and orange juice and zest in the cake and the finely chopped pecans that end up coating it give it fantastic flavor before the rum glaze is even applied. Rum cakes that are soaked multiple times can end up tasting very boozy and I do quite like the taste of rum, but it’s not overwhelming here. In the glaze, the rum melds with melted butter and brown sugar into a lovely butterscotch with just a hint of rum. Soaking the cake with the glaze also extends the life of the cake. It gets better as it sits, and it lasts a few days longer than it would otherwise. To gild each serving a bit more, I whipped cream with Grand Marnier to top the cut pieces.

This simple whisked batter started with flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt being combined in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, milk, orange juice, vegetable oil, eggs, orange zest, and rum were whisked together and then added to the dry ingredients. The batter was stirred to combine and then carefully poured into a bundt pan that had been buttered and sprinkled with toasted and chopped pecans. You want to pour the batter slowly to as not to dislodge the pecans. The cake baked for about an hour, was left to cool, and was placed on a serving platter, and that’s where I learned a lesson. You should place the cake on a rimmed platter. I somehow believed that the cake would absorb every single bit of the glaze, and I foolishly chose a flat platter. The glaze was made by melting butter in a saucepan, adding sugar and water and stirring while simmering for five minutes. The rum was added off the heat. The cooled cake, on a platter with a rim, is then pierced all over with a wooden skewer before you slowly spoon the glaze over top. Most of the glaze will be absorbed, but some does collect around the base of the cake and that could work its way to the edge of a platter without a rim and dribble all over your dining room table. Whip some cream with a little sugar and Grand Marnier to serve with the cake.

The finely chopped pecans held their place on the surface of the cake and gave it some crunch, and the Grand Marnier whipped cream added more orange flavor. Certainly, a rum cake in Bermuda comes with a much better view, but this homemade rum cake was fresher, lighter, and even more delicious. Obviously, the best solution would be to pack up a homemade cake and go back for another visit to Bermuda.

Key Lime Bundt Cake with Margarita Frosting

I’m always mentioning my CSA, but what I currently receive isn’t a share from a single farm. I’ve been receiving a box every other week from Farmhouse Delivery, and they combine produce, meat, dairy, eggs, and local artisanal products in a flexible plan. The boxes are delivered to your door, and you can choose to receive one every week rather than every other, but that would be a little too much for a two-person household. Because the items are gathered from a few different local farms, each box is filled with varied and interesting things. There's always something exciting and unexpected. A couple of weeks ago, our delivery included some key limes, and a few ideas came to mind immediately. I knew I’d seen a key lime cake I really wanted to try. After a little searching, I found it again on Cookie Madness. This is a great summer cake. It’s a sturdy but tender bundt with lots of flavor from the key lime juice and zest in the batter, and the frosting has all the basic ingredients of a good margarita.

The cake is made with cake flour which gives it a velvety texture. The dry ingredients were sifted together, and then eggs were separated. The egg whites were beaten to soft peaks in a separate bowl and set aside. The yolks were combined with softened butter, sugar, and lime zest. As usual, I used all butter here rather than a mix of butter and shortening. The dry ingredients were added to the butter mixture alternately with lime juice and sour cream. You know a cake is going to be good when sour cream’s involved. Last, the egg whites were folded into the batter, and it was poured into a prepared bundt pan. For the frosting, softened cream cheese, butter, and confectioner’s sugar were mixed, and tequila, Grand Marnier, and lime juice were added. The frosting should be thin enough to run down the sides of the cake but thick enough to hold some shape. Tasting and testing the frosting is a fun process as you can add additional lime juice, tequila, or confectioner’s sugar to achieve the margarita taste you want and the thickness that seems right.

Bundt cakes are so low-maintenance with their built-in good looks from the pan in which they’re baked and their need for just a simple drizzly frosting at the most. Add to that great flavor like key lime, and you’ve got a fantastic dessert. Getting to use some locally grown citrus in this delicious cake was a bonus for me, and well, the familiar flavor of a margarita was, you know, icing on the cake.