Pirate Rum Cake Recipe – Fast and Easy
The debate over which rum is best for a rum cake is not likely to be solved anytime soon, however, after several trials, I’ve settled on using Gosling’s Bermuda Black Rum or Mount Gay 1703 Eclipse or Black Barrel Rum. I’ve also used Myer’s Original Dark Rum or Bacardi Black Rum with great results – sometimes I simply use the host’s or guests’ favorite label to please them.
The next decision is: do you want to make the cake from “scratch,” or are you in need of a quicker method? If from scratch, which actually does not take much longer, simply seek your favorite recipe. I’ve used the King Arthur Caribbean Rum Cake recipe, the Golden Rum Cake recipe from allrecipes, and food network’s Rum Cake – Semi Homemaker Recipe. The Bacardi Rum Cake recipe from Genius Kitchen is probably the fastest and easiest. However, due to all the rum… it’s hard to tell a difference between the recipes, so this is one time you don’t have to feel bad for using a box mix!
Here is my modified version of all those rum cakes combined, changed, altered, modified, and perfected:
CAKE INGREDIENTS
-
- 1 cup chopped pecans or 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 package yellow cake mix (You just use the cake mix as is, do not add other ingredients listed on cake box. About 15 ounces.)
- 1 package vanilla instant pudding mix
- 4 eggs
- 1⁄2 cup cold water
- 1⁄2 cup cooking oil
- 1⁄2 cup dark rum or rum
GLAZE INGREDIENTS
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- 1⁄2 cup butter
- 1⁄4 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1⁄2 cup dark rum or rum
DIRECTIONS
Whichever you choose, I plan ahead to ensure it comes out tasting and looking fantastic. Presentation is important!
About two weeks in advance, if I know I’m going to make this, I head over to Amazon and order pirates, mermaids, chocolate gold coins, and blue cake decorating candy sprinkles for the water, or Wilton Blue Sugar Pearls, and I check the pantry for vanilla and grainy, rocky brown sugar. These items aren’t crucial, but they sure make for a fun presentation. If you have any unused aquarium pirates’ chests lying around, or Mardi Gras beads, those would be fun too! So would those chocolate sea shells, and some nautical flags! The only limit is your imagination!
Then I check to make sure I have pecans. I prefer pecans I have picked off the ground, cracked, and shelled myself, but store-bought works just fine too.While you are at the grocery picking up some pecans, swing by the bakery section and pick up one of those freebie plastic cake cutters – not great for the environment, however, you can leave it behind without worry. Or, head to a cheapie dollar shop and get a decent long sharp knife you won’t miss later, and a pretty large platter that you can jettison at the event. Gold or silver would be so fun!
Next, you need an awesome pan. Either one shaped like a huge fish, seahorse, sand castle, or something creative. A bundt pan works well, but any shape will do. I like the Nordic Ware Castle Pan. Or, the Arena Nordic Ware pan would work. It’s shaped like a Roman arena. Nordic Ware has one shaped like a palace, and the one I show above is the Fiesta Party #45100.
Ask all your friends if you can borrow one, or keep an eye out at consignment and thrift stores for a good pan. I lucked upon my older Nordic Ware bundt pan at our local Humane Society Thrift Store. What a find! I think I paid $2.99 – a far cry for the one I purchased the previous year from Amazon. I watched it for months until the price dropped!
Now, for the actual recipe tips. When you put the pecans in the bottom of the pan, and then the cake batter on top, I have learned that if there is no batter to bind the pecans, they all fall off of your cake! My solution was to place the pecans – don’t forget to grease AND flour the pan, it’s very important – and the cake batter as usual. But, then I take a chopstick and just slightly agitate the pecans at the bottom enough that they will be “glued” to the top of the cake.
Bake as normal, and while it’s baking, make the glaze. Once the cakes are done, turn them out of the pans. Some recipes will instruct you to now drizzle the glaze on top of the cake. However, it will run off, and then you have to keep doing this the next couple days. I devised a solution – let them marinate in their own pans!
To do this, and this is the really important part, line the empty pans with plastic wrap. If you don’t, the sugar will “glue” the cake back into the pan.
Instead, drape plastic wrap from one side to the other. If you are using a bundt pan, make sure you have enough plastic wrap to drape over the pan on one side, down into the tube, up over the center hole, back down into the tube on the other side, and back up the far side with enough to drape over that side. You will use the sections that drape over the edges to help you remove the cake in a few days. You might have to put one piece across, then do the same a second time in the other perpendicular direction if your plastic wrap is too narrow.
Once the cake is cooled, ease it back into the pan lined with plastic wrap. I imagine aluminum foil would be easier to form, I was just concerned it would react with the rum and produce a funny taste. Once safely in the pan, use a chopstick to make some holes here and there almost all the way to the bottom (top) of the cake. This will assist the glaze in soaking into your cake.
Now slowly pour the glaze onto the bottom of the cake. You don’t have to worry about wasting any through the bundt cake pan center hole because it’s covered in plastic wrap. You can “feed” the cake a couple times over the next couple days if you wish. I found that the recipes all call for enough glaze, and that it thoroughly soaks the cake.
Transport the cake IN the pan to your destination – much easier than worrying about it breaking. Once on site, gently pull the plastic wrap all around to loosen the cake. Place a platter, up-side down on the cake pan, turn the whole thing over, and then gently lift off your pan. Cake will now be right-side-up and ready to embellish!
Around the cake, pour about half the platter with “sand” of brown sugar. That will keep the blue beads from rolling around. Then pour about a half of one of the bottles of blue beads on the other side for your “sea.” Populate the “sea” with mermaids, the cake and “beach” with pirates, toss in some pairs of gold or silver coins, and you have the cutest and most delicious rum cake you’ve ever seen or tasted! Put the gooey plastic wrap back in the messy pan, cover it with the plastic wrap. We’ll deal with that later.
When you get home, toss the pan in the fridge until you can get to it – if you leave it out, you’ll attract millions of ants! When you are ready, put some hot water in your sink and let the pan sit IN the water to soften all the sugar. You can easily squeeze the sugar out of the plastic wrap once it warms up, and then use a plastic soft spatula to gather all that yummy rum-soaked sugar and pecans. Reserve that in a container for putting on waffles or pancakes – hey – pecans are expensive! And so is rum! Waste not, want not!
Be careful with your pans; if they have non-stick surfaces, all that sugar and pecans will be stuck to them. Use a very soft-bristled brush with a soft plastic handle to clean them. Never use a knife to remove the cake, or to clean the pan – you’ll have a problem with cakes sticking to that spot on the pan forever after that.
Your cake will be much enjoyed! The extra little effort makes all the difference in treating your guests or your host or hostess with something just a step above. It will be our secret if you used a mix. No one will know. Now, what to do with that last little bit of rum left in the bottle…
What I used:
Set of 12 Blockbuster Pirate Swashbuckler Figures – I used three on each cake. There were less expensive options, but these looked the “meanest.”
Set of 12 Wild Republic Mermaid Figurines – I used three of these on each cake as well.
Wilton Blue Sugar Pearls, 5 ounce – I thought they were pricey, but one container will dress two cakes.
I’ve found there are a few options even cuter than the Wilton sugar pearls; these Ocean Away Sprinkles Mix shown above look so much like sparkly, foamy water! Order in advance – they take five to ten days to arrive from the UK. Or, there’s a Sea Glass Sprinkle Mix with blue, teal, and gold. Also, there’s a Blue Ombre Sprinkle Mix that would look awesome too!
Solid Milk Chocolate Large Kennedy Gold Coins – you can find them in groceries around Christmas, Hannukah, and even St. Patrick’s Day. The brand that arrived was made by Palmer, although the packaging online looked like it was from River Finn. The distributor was Blue Monster. I didn’t mind what brand, as they were for decoration, and probably only children banned from eating rum cake would take these as a consolation prize.
Raw Sugar – any brand would do, as long as it’s beach sand-colored and large grained.
What fun additions would you make to the decorations? Leave your comments below!
Updated December 7, 2019.
