Famous Rum Cake

This is the rum cake that shows up at every holiday party and office potluck, and it earns its spot every time. A yellow cake mix gets boosted with instant vanilla pudding, extra eggs, and a full half cup of 80-proof dark rum in the batter. Then, after baking, the whole thing gets soaked in a hot butter-sugar-rum glaze that seeps into every crack.

Chopped pecans line the bottom of the Bundt pan and end up on top when the cake gets inverted. They toast during baking and add crunch against the impossibly moist crumb.

Pricking the top after inverting lets the glaze penetrate deep into the cake. Spoon it on in stages, letting each application absorb before adding more. Patience here is what makes the difference between a cake that’s moist all the way through and one that’s just wet on the surface.

The rum flavor is real. This is not a cake where the alcohol bakes off entirely. You taste it.

Kitchen Tips

• Use 80-proof dark rum, not spiced rum. Dark rum has a deeper, more caramelized flavor that stands up to the sweetness.
• Boil the glaze for the full 5 minutes. This concentrates the sugar into a syrup that soaks in instead of running off.
• Let the cake cool completely in the pan before inverting. A warm cake is too fragile and will break apart.
• This cake tastes even better the next day after the rum glaze has fully permeated the crumb.

Variations

• Coconut rum cake: Add shredded coconut to the batter and use coconut rum in the glaze.
• Chocolate rum cake: Use chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding mix with the same rum glaze for a boozy chocolate version.