My Rum Cake

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Not long ago I posted something about making this cake on my quilting blog, and some expressed an interest in the recipe. Believe me, this is not a difficult cake to make (I make it with "help" from my 4 year old son), it tastes great - even if it is a few days old (especially with your morning coffee), and it serves lots of people... at least 18 servings! It is a pound cake, but very moist inside. And the rum taste is evident!

Here is the recipe - I write my recipes as I use the ingredients - because I pre-measure everything. Besides, if I write down 3 cups of sugar - that is what I use - in the beginning - paying no head to the fact that I was supposed to save 1/2 cup for the egg whites. So, yes - you see 2 1/2cups of sugar and than 1/2 cup of sugar - that is just the way I cook...

This is one of those recipes where it is helpful to have a big mixer (for the batter), a small hand-held mixer - for the egg whites, and a seperate BIG mixing bowl (to blend the batter with the egg whites). This BIG mixing bowl can be one of those cheap commerical kitchen type bowls...

To make the cake:

1 cup butter - room temp.

2 1/2 cups sugar

6 eggs yolks - room temp.

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

8 oz container of sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon extract

6 egg whites - room temp.

1/2 cup sugar

So, you don't have time to wait until your butter comes to room temp in order to cream? Put it in the microwave for about 22 seconds - the edges will melt, but the center will still be solid enough and when you cream it with the sugar it will be just fine. Just don't nuke the butter until it is all melted because then it won't work. Eggs I find work OK even if they are a little cold, but good luck trying to cream COLD butter!

1. Mix butter with 2 1/2 cups sugar, beating well. Add egg yolks and beat well.

2. Add flour and baking soda - alternating with the sour cream and mix until just blended well. Add your extracts.

3. In a seperate mixing bowl beat the egg whites until foamy. Add sugar a bit at a time until stiff peaks form. Don't know what stiff peaks are? Well - if you can stick your finger in the stuff and your finger indent remains intact - that is perfect.

4. Fold the egg whites into the batter - this is where the BIG mixing bowl comes in handy - to blend the 2 mixtures. What is "folding" - this means just mixing the 2 things together until just mixed - don't stir and stir and stir here, ok?

Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 1/2 hour (in a household oven) in a greased and floured tube pan. That means - crisco the pan and then lightly flour. My original recipe calls for a 10" tube pan, but I really have no idea what that means - I just use the same old tube pan I've always had. My pan is nifty - it is a 2 piece pan so I am always assured of getting that cake out of there somehow!!! My oven doesn't take so long because it is a convection oven. Basically - after 1 hour open up the oven and take a look. Then guage. Then start watching and after it looks like the sides are pulling a tiny bit away from the edges of the pan - poke with a shish-ka-bob stick to see if any batter is on the stick. Batter = cook longer. No batter - it is done!

Now I put the entire pan on top of a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto the a LARGE platter. Poke full of holes with that shish-ka-bob stick - at about 1" intervals and pour the hot rum glaze over the entire cake. Of couse - mostof it slides right off the cake - take a soup spoon and keep scooping it up and putting it back on top of the cake until the mixture cools too much and it impossible to scoop - or until you are tired of scooping! Basically - the more hot rum glaze you are able to put on the top of the cake, the more the cake will absorb the glaze down into it. The glaze all pooled at the bottom won't do much good.

Did I mention that this cake is absolutely fabulous even a few days after the fact (just put it in the fridge). So - go ahead and make it ahead of your big event, whatever that may be!

RUM GLAZE

Got to have this recipe too...

I use a very strong, 80% proof rum from Austria - it is typically used for making rum balls and also in hot tea, but I think it would be good with any rum...

1/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

a little less than 1/2 cup of water

1/4 cup rum

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Bring 1st 3 ingredients to almost a boil for about 3 minutes.

Turn heat way down and add 1/4 cup of rum - be careful pouring because it will tend to fizz up a bit. Simmer for another minute.

Add the walnuts and then immediately pour over your cake. Spoon any glaze back up onto the cake - 3, 4, 5... times!

A NOTE about seperating eggs:

I always crack and also seperate my eggs over a small bowl... by working egg by egg - in a seperate bowl - you have much better control over the situation if there is a bad egg, egg shell or the yolk breaks. And - you never kn0w - you just might end up with a double yolker sometimes! AND - working with a very enthusiastic 4 year old who likes to "help" break the eggs - we usually get egg shells, so this method works best for me!