rum pound cake.

I'm starting to think that... I like anything with rum in it. I've always loved pina coladas (even though I'm not supposed to drink it yet), and I practically fell in love with this rum-heavy dessert when I made it. Rum and raisin ice cream has been one of my favourite ice cream flavours since time immemorial, and I've always enjoyed unscrewing the cap off a bottle of rum to take a huge whiff of its contents.

I might just bake through the whole chapter on rum in Baking by Flavour.

Okay, it's not that big a chapter but it's still saying something.

There's butter rum cake, rum buns, pecan, rum and brown sugar keeping cake... Like, oh em gee?

If the rest of the recipes are as good as this cake, I will go insane with happiness. Or perhaps in a fit of drunkenness. There's something to be said for the use of spices in the cake. They seem little, but they amp up the flavour hugely, yet not overdoing it. The cake itself is thoroughly imbued with rum, although I can't tell if it comes from the cake or the glaze. No matter. I just know it tastes good.

The glaze- amazing. It forms this crunchy coating on the surface of the cake, and adds a ton of rum flavour. It can get a little sweet a first, but I didn't mind at all because of the texture I can get in return. In fact, I regretted not baking the cake in a tube pan to get more surface area. (I divided the recipe by 6 and baked it in a 2-cup capacity mini loaf pan.) Speaking of sweetness, I cut back on the sugar quite a bit and it still proved to be a little on the sweet side. Just a word of caution.

I had some rum-soaked raisins in the fridge so I threw those in too. Hence the funny blobs sticking out of the cake. I wished I had added some toasted pecans or walnuts too. The cake would be even more fabulous with that addition.

Rum Pound Cake
adapted from Baking by Flavour
makes a 10 inch tube cake

I feel that the cake is best eaten the day it is baked because the glaze will loose its crunchiness after a few hours.

For the cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup butter
4 tbsp shortening
3 cups minus 2 tbsp sugar (I used 2 cups)
6 large eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup dark rum
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

For the sugar-rum glaze:
1/4 cup dark rum
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, grated nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and cloves together.

Cream the butter and shortening until creamy. Add the sugar in three additions, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Blend in the eggs one at a time, incorporating each fully before adding the next. Stir in the extracts.

Alternately add the sifted flour mixture in 3 additions with the heavy cream in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Blend in the rum, then the coconut.

Bake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out mostly clean, with moist crumbs attached. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before unmolding.

For the glaze, combine the rum, sugar and vanilla in a small bowl. The sugar does not need to dissolved. Brush the glaze onto the top and sides of the cake while it's still warm. Cool the cake completely before slicing.