Ginger Bacardi Rum Cake

Avast and ahoy, mates! As promised, in the Pirate Tea – All Hands On Deck blog posted yesterday, here is my recipe for the Bacardi Rum cake with a little kick of ginger.

I prefer spiced rum vs. dark rum for this treasure. If you want to use the other brand of rum bearing a captain’s figure . . . why not? Thar be pirates here!

For the scurvy purists, I’ve made rum cake from scratch and quite frankly once the rum is poured, it does not matter to me that this cake is made from a mix. Arrr!

Let’s get Kraken, oops, cracking . . . eggs that is, step smartly, and Yo Ho Ho seize the bottle of rum!

GINGER RUM CAKE

1 cup chopped pecans

1 package (15.25 ounces*) yellow cake mix
*the reduced ounces from the original 18.25 ounces recipe makes a very moist cake – add a couple tablespoons flour if desired

1 package (3.4 ounces) Jell-O® Vanilla Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

2 teaspoons ground ginger

½ cup spiced rum

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup cold water

4 eggs

2 tablespoons peeled, grated fresh ginger

GOLDEN GINGER RUM GLAZE

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter

¼ cup water

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ cup spiced rum

FINISHING

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip chunks

1 tablespoon chopped, candied ginger

Preheat oven to 325°F – rack in center. Spray 12” Bundt® pan with Pam® Baking Spray or Baker’s Joy®. Sprinkle pecans in the bottom of pan. Set aside.

Whisk together cake mix, pudding and ground ginger in large mixing bowl. Add rum, oil, water and eggs; blend with electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine; scrape down the sides of the bowl with rubber spatula.

Add fresh grated ginger. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes, scraping down sides if needed. Pour batter into prepared pan, smooth top with rubber spatula and tap pan on counter a few times to release some of the air bubbles.

Bake cake 1 hour, or until golden brown. Remove pan from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes.

Make the glaze while cake is cooling.

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in water and sugars. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat slightly; cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove pan from heat, add ground ginger using a whisk to blend out any lumps. Slowly add spiced rum (it will bubble up), stir to blend. Do not pour alcohol anywhere near an open flame or hot burner.

Invert cake on a serving platter. Poke holes in the top and sides of cake with a wooden skewer. Pour half the glaze in the Bundt® pan, flip cake back over and carefully return it to the pan making sure to match up the ridges. Poke holes in the bottom of cake. Pour the rest of the glaze evenly over top and down the sides (not letting it go over the hole in center of pan). Let stand until glaze is absorbed about 15 minutes.

Invert cake onto the serving platter. Cool cake completely before topping with chocolate.

Place chocolate morsels in small resealable plastic bag. Microwave sealed bag 60 seconds at half power. Turn bag over; heat 60 seconds at half power. Knead bag until candy is smooth. All microwaves are different; it may take another 30 seconds more or less at half power. Just don’t heat it too long, chocolate burns easily.

Cut tiny corner off bag; drizzle melted chocolate over top and sides of cooled cake. Sprinkle top with candied ginger bits.

Fill center of cake with additional candied ginger bits, if desired.

For Pirate Tea, serve on gold charger surrounded with brown sugar sprinkled around the cake to look like “sand” or place gold candy coins on the rim of charger.

If decadence is desired, serve with dollops of sweetened whipped cream.

Enjoy and eat up, me hearties!