Jamaican Rum Cake
Jamaican Rum Cake. The best recipe I've tried! A dense yet moist cake infused with a rum & butter syrup that just takes the deliciousness to a whole other level. Utterly irresistible!!
Originally published April 2020.
I'm going to start from the top with a confession. Spouse and I ate this entire cake over the course of several days.
You may think, so what, but that is quite an unusual occurrence in this house. Yes, we make plenty of delicious baked goodies as the hundreds of recipes here can attest.
However, we almost never have more than one serving each of anything. We normally freeze the rest or more often, give them to friends and family.
That did not happen with this Jamaican Rum Cake. We found it utterly irresistible! Sliver by sliver, we whittled that cake down to the last deliciously moist crumb.
Rum as an ingredient.
Both Spouse and I have a pretty well established love of anything rum flavoured, although neither of us are actually rum drinkers. From our gorgeous homemade Rum & Raisin Ice Cream to our Rum Spice Glazed Pork Tenderloin, amongst many others, it truly is one of our favourite ingredients.
A number of years ago, we took the kids on a Western Caribbean cruise and one of the stops was Jamaica. It seemed every little shop we entered, was selling Jamaican Rum Cake.
Samples were often on hand and I partook in plenty of them. My favourite though was a sort of dense, moist bundt/pound cake that seemed to have the perfect amount of rum soaked in.
On returning home, I naturally tried to replicate that recipe with somewhat limited success. The attempts were all pretty good but not quite all that I wanted in a rum cake.
My attempts at Jamaican Rum Cake.
They were all delicious but lacked that perfect texture I enjoyed so much. Just a couple of weeks ago, I took up the torch again and decided to have another crack at it.
I did my research, looked at 100 different photos on Pinterest and read more than a dozen recipes. Many had a lot in common but several of them had one other thing in common, a rum & butter syrup to soak into the cake when baked.
Now, I had been using straight rum to soak my attempts before which sometimes left the cake too soggy. I'd used a syrup previously as well, but the flavour I remembered wasn't quite right.
The thing that made the difference in end turned out to be the inclusion of butter in the syrup. It added that missing flavour that I remembered so well. No doubt it helped keep the cake moist as well.
Many of the recipes I read were copies of the King Arthur Flour version, and some were slight variations. Most included a package of instant vanilla pudding mix in the batter.
Since those packages are mostly cornstarch and sugar, and since I don't like using packaged mixes in my baking, I decided to use corn starch instead and up the amount of vanilla extract. It worked perfectly and gave that dense but soft texture I remembered.
The result
After baking and cooling, I had the patience to wait until the next day to cut into it. Many recipes I read gave that same advice and it turned out to be good advice indeed.
From the first bite, both Spouse and I fell instantly in love. It was so buttery, soft, moist and delicious! Perfection.
I don't say it lightly, but this was one of the best cakes I ever baked in over three decades of baking. It really is that good!
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Jamaican Rum Cake
Jamaican Rum Cake. The best recipe I've tried! A dense yet moist cake infused with a rum & butter syrup that just takes the deliciousness to a whole other level. Utterly irresistible!!
Ingredients
For the cake
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- ¼ cup corn starch
- 3 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- ½ cup soft butter
- ¼ cup canola oil (or other vegetable oil)
- ½ cup evaporated milk (undiluted; straight from the can)
- 4 eggs
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup rum ( I used amber rum)
For the rum & butter syrup
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup water
- ½ to ¾ cup rum ( I used amber rum)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
To prepare the cake
- Begin by preheating the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a bundt pan or funnel pan.
- To the bowl of an electric mixer, add the flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter and oil.
- Mix on low speed for just a couple of minutes until the butter and oil are well incorporated and the mixture is crumbly and sandy looking.
- Mix in the milk and then mix in the eggs one at a time. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl well after each egg is added.
- Finally, mix in the rum and vanilla extract until the batter is smooth.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Completely cool the cake on a wire rack.
To prepare the rum and butter syrup
- Add the butter, water and sugar to you smallest saucepan.
- Bring to a slow boil and simmer for 7 or 8 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before adding in the rum and vanilla extract.
- The amount of rum you add to the syrup is completely up to you. I like it with the full ¾ cup but you can use less if you want a less rummy cake.
To add the syrup to the cake.
- Place the cooled cake back in the bundt pan. This traps in any syrup that drips over the edges and then absorbs it into the cake.
- With a long skewer, poke holes all over the top of the cake, straight through to the bottom of the pan.
- Slowly spoon all of the rum and butter syrup, evenly over the surface of the cake.
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap and leave for several hours or overnight.
- This cake needs no frosting or glaze. It is perfect as it is. I think a frosting might make it a little too sweet.
- Store in an airtight plastic cake container at room temperature.
- This cake remains moist for days. The cake was just as good on day four as it was on day one. It didn't see a day five.
Nutrition Information
Yield
16Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 315Total Fat 14gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 72mgSodium 260mgCarbohydrates 38gFiber 0gSugar 23gProtein 4g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
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EXCELLENT! Finally a recipe for a lighter coloured cake. We enjoy the Traditional Jamaican Rum Cake but wanted to find a recipe that is less dense, and we found it. THANKYOU!
I really enjoy all of your recipes I have tried a few and look forward to trying more I'm trying my own conversions because my husband is on a Keto diet some have worked and some not so much to you Keto fans. but I will keep using your originals. Thanks so much
Is the cake removed from the bundt pan to cool? If so, when? Then it is put back into the pan for the syrup. Or is it completely cooled in the bundt pan and when cool, is the syrup to then be added?
It really doesnt matter, but it will definitely cool faster out of the pan. It doesn't have to fully cool to room temp. Once the butter/rum mix is ready, poor about half of it into the bundt pan. Place the cake back into the pan that now has a puddle of butter/rum mix. Slowly pour the remaining butter/rum mix onto the bottom of the bundt cake, allowing it to absorb into the cake and not just spill over and go to the top side of the cake.. let it set for a few minutes, then, on a cake stand or plate, flip the entire cake and bundt pan over to allow the mix of butter/rum to soak down into the cake from the top. Allow it to cool or the rum can be a little overwhelming if still warm.
I took the cake out of the pan after about 10 minutes to cool and to make sure it would come out with no problem. When cooled, I put it back in and poured the syrup over it. Worked perfectly, and was amazingly delicious!
So very pleased to find a rum cake recipe that doesn’t use the packaged vanilla pudding!! THANK YOU!
We are at 5000 feet in Northern AZ USA, so I am going to make some high altitude adjustments & hopefully it will turn out as amazing as yours did.
Hello! I just baked your Jamaican rum cake and it turned out amazing!!!! Thank you, thank you for sharing this. I am so glad that I stumbled upon this recipe. I will most definitely be making this cake again to share with family and friends. 🙂
Hi Barry...what size of Bundt or Funnel pan would you recommend?
A standard size.
I am going to try this recipe. I used to get jamaican rum cake from a street fair that was great. I am hoping this recipe is similar.
Very good. Tastes quite like the Tortuga rum cakes we love in Jamaica.
This cake is too good for words. Very good and easy to make. The hard part is waiting to cut into it...
Thanks for the recipe! It was hard to find one that didn't use a cake mix and/or pudding mix.
It's nice to see a regional rum cake recipe, they are as diverse as the regions from which they came. In Trinidad and Tobago, it's known as Black cake, then there is Jamaican and Caribbean rum cakes....there are as many different recipes in each country as there are families! And everyone believes that theirs is the BEST lol
My friend brought her Jamaican auntie's cake for us to eat but couldn't get her to share the recipe. This is the only one that sounds like what I had and I'm VERY excited to make it! Sadly I'm out of Rum and still in Covid lockdown, but now I have something to look forward to! Thank you!
Good morning, I have been looking at this recipe for a while and I want to give it a try. Butter is needed for the cake and the syrup. Salted or unsalted butter? Thanks for the great recipes.
It’s a matter of preference, many bakers use unsalted butter but we use salted quite often
I was in a hurry to make this and halfway through I found out I had no rum!!! I used Crown Royal instead. These are very good, but I definately will be buying some rum tomorrow to make more!!
Wonderful recipe, I admit I add a bit more butter to the syrup. It is decadent!
FYI I needed a dairy free version, so I exchanged the condensed milk for canned coconut milk, and used vegan margarine in the cake and 1:1 vegan margarine : coconut oil in place of butter in the syrup. The taste was altered a bit, but no less delicious! Just like my grandpa used to make 🙂