Rum cake with limoncello

We don’t keep dark rum in the house but, often, there is an open bottle of light rum in the fridge for making mojito which we love. The bottle of Bacardi in the fridge caught my eye one day and I thought I’d bake a rum cake.

Dark rum is traditionally used for making rum cake as it results in a deeper and more attractive color. Dark rum is also more fully bodied. There is no reason, however, why light rum “� sweeter and less bitter “� cannot be substituted.

Limoncello is a liqueur made from lemon zest but sans lemon juice. It is sweet and lemony and really delicious.

This recipe yields an eight-inch cake which I baked in an eight-inch silicone Bundt pan. If using a regular Bundt pan, you will need to grease and flour it. If you don’t have a Bundt pan, use a tube pan instead. I have no idea if the cake will bake properly in a round, square or rectangular pan.

Before I go to the recipe, let me say that this rum cake with limoncello was a collaboration with my two daughters. Sam took the photos of the entire procedure; Alex did most of the mixing. I love school breaks!

Ingredients:

3/4 c. of butter, softened
3/4 c. of white sugar
2 large whole eggs
1 tsp. of vanilla essence
1 tbsp. of grated lemon zest
1/4 c. of light rum
1/8 c. of limoncello
1-1/2 c. of all-purpose flour
1 tsp. of baking powder
1/4 tsp. of baking soda
pinch of salt
1 c. of all-purpose cream
2 tbsps. of powdered sugar

For the syrup:

1/3 c. of butter, melted
1/2 c. of white sugar
1/4 c. of light rum
1/4 c. of limoncello

Preheat the oven to 350^oF.

Have the rum and limoncello at room temperature.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest.

In a liquid measuring cup, pour the required amount of rum and limoncello. You can measure the rum and limoncello separately; I saw no reason to do so since they would be added to the batter at the same time anyway.

To the softened butter, add the sugar. Cream the butter and sugar until light in texture. Use a wire whisk or an electric mixer.

To the creamed mixture, add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

Add the flour mixture and cream alternately, mixing after each addition, starting and ending with the flour.

Pour in the vanilla essence and stir to incorporate.

Finally, add the combined rum and limoncello. Mix until smooth.

Pour the batter into the cake pan, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula to get all the batter into the pan.

Run the spatula on top of the batter to level it as much as possible.

Bake at 350^oF for an hour.

Cool the cake in the pan for about 20 minutes. While still warm, using a skewer, liberally pierce the cake in several places all the way to the bottom.

Mix the syrup ingredients together.

Pour the syrup over the cake little by little, making sure that each hole catches some of it.

Allow the cake to cool some more then chill in the fridge overnight.

Invert the cake on a plate, dust with powdered sugar, slice and serve.

Edited at 5.54 p.m.