Homemade Rum Cake
Rich and tender rum cake soaked in a rum glaze makes this decadent cake recipe the perfect addition to your next extra-special dinner or holiday gathering. Drenched in flavor without being overpowering, this moist rum cake recipe pairs perfectly with a warm cup of coffee and a dollop of fresh whipped cream.
Rum cake was one of a small rotation of desserts that showed up at my grandma's house on Sunday afternoons. You could usually count on one of the following: rum cake, icebox cake, angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream, or poor man's cookies.
My great-aunt made an amazing rum cake that was thick and moist, and of course, packed with rum. When I asked my aunt for the recipe years later, I found that she always used a doctored-up box of yellow cake mix (apparently everyone knew this recipe, and it’s now famously known as “Bacardi rum cake”).
I was determined to create the absolute best rum cake that wasn’t based on a box mix; years ago I finally found a recipe that I tweaked to rum-soaked perfection.
Quick History
Typically served during the holidays, rum cake originated in the Caribbean as a dessert similar to fruit cake or steamed puddings. Dried fruit soaked for months in rum before being added to a cake batter and baked into this holiday dessert.
Ingredients Notes
This decadent cake can is comprised of two main parts, the bundt cake and the rum sauce that soaks and glazes the cake. Most of the ingredients are pantry staples, but below are a few quick notes, recommendations, and substitution options:
- Walnuts: Optional, but highly encouraged, they are used as a topping for the rum cake. You can also substitute other chopped nuts; pecans would be delicious!
- Oil: You can use any all-purpose baking oil like vegetable oil, canola oil, corn oil, or safflower oil.
- Vanilla Pudding Mix: You can use your own DIY vanilla pudding mix or a 3.4-ounce package of instant pudding mix.
- Milk: Whole milk is preferred, but 2% will work, too.
- Rum: You can use whatever rum you like for this cake (light or dark); I typically use Myers dark rum.
If you want to make this cake alcohol-free but still have the flavor of rum, make these substitutions:
- For the Cake: Substitute the rum in the cake batter with an equal amount of milk, then add 2 tablespoons of rum extract along with the vanilla extract.
- For the Rum Syrup: Substitute any of the following for the rum: apple juice, orange juice, white grape juice, or apple cider. Then add 2 teaspoons of rum extract, as well.
How to Make the Cake
- Grease and flour a standard 10 to 12-cup Bundt pan (the pan shown in the photos is a Nordic Ware Heritage Bundt Pan; another pan I love and recommend is the classic original Bundt pan). Sprinkle the chopped walnuts around the bottom and set aside.
- Whisk your dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt) together in one bowl. Then in another medium bowl, whisk together your wet ingredients (eggs, milk, rum, ½ cup of the oil, and vanilla extract).
- Cream together butter and sugar, then add the flour mixture and the remaining 3 tablespoons of the canola oil and mix. Then, add the pudding mix and combine.
- Add the wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined (the batter will be thin!).
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake!
How to Make the Rum Syrup
When the cake has about 10 minutes left to bake, start making the rum syrup.
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- Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the sugar and water. Once melted, boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the rum. Pour it in slowly, as it will cause the butter and sugar mixture to bubble up.
- Return the stove and cook over medium heat for 30 seconds.
Soak the Cake with the Rum Glaze
This is where the magic happens!
- When the cake comes out of the oven, immediately pour about one-third of the rum syrup (about ⅔ cup) over the bottom of the cake. Pour slowly so it has time to seep into the cake and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
- Invert the cake onto a serving platter, then using a fork or skewer, poke holes all over the cake.
- Sloooooooowly spoon the remaining rum syrup over the top of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. You want to do this step slowly (it took me almost 15 minutes) so that the syrup can seep into the cake and doesn't just pool at the bottom of the serving dish. You can also use a pastry brush to brush on the rum syrup.
Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.
Serving Suggestions
My favorite way to enjoy a slice of this rum bundt cake is warm and with a cup of coffee. Some other ways to enjoy this cake include:
- Dolloped with whipped cream
- Served with fresh fruit such as strawberry, pineapple, or cherries
- Topped with salted caramel sauce
- Alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream
- Sprinkled with additional nuts or shredded coconut
Make-Ahead, Storing, and Freezing Instructions
- Make-Ahead: As you'd imagine, this gets better the longer you let it sit and soak, so you can absolutely make this cake a day ahead of time.
- Storing: Best kept at room temperature, you will want to wrap this cake tightly in plastic wrap to maintain the moisture. It keeps for up to 5 days at room temperature.
- Freezing: You can freeze rum cake! Wrap it twice in plastic wrap then aluminum foil, and place in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours, or at room temperature. Do not unwrap until completely thawed.
More Decadent Cake Recipes:
- Kentucky Butter Cake
- Tiramisu
- German Chocolate Cake
- Eggnog Bundt Cake with Rum Icing
- Russian Pound Cake
Watch the Recipe Video:
If you make this rum cake and love it, remember to stop back and give it a 5-star rating - it helps others find the recipe! ❤️️
Homemade Rum Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 cup (113 g) chopped walnuts (optional)
- 1¾ cups (228 g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (28 g) cornstarch
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1½ cups (297 g) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- ½ cup (99 g) canola oil
- 3.4 ounce instant vanilla pudding package, or ⅔ cup homemade pudding mix
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup (180 ml) whole milk
- ¾ cup (180 ml) dark rum
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
For the Rum Syrup:
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter
- 1½ cups (297 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (60 ml) water
- Pinch of salt
- ½ cup (120 ml) dark rum
Instructions
- Make the Cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a standard Bundt pan (12-cup capacity). Sprinkle the chopped walnuts around the bottom; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
- Using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the flour mixture and the 3 tablespoons of canola oil, and mix on medium-low speed for 1 to 2 minutes – the mixture should look like wet sand. Add the pudding mix and mix again on medium-low speed until combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, rum, remaining ½ cup canola oil, and vanilla extract. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and beat on medium speed until thoroughly combined, about 2 to 3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. (The batter will be quite thin – this is good! It will be nice and moist!)
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Make the Rum Syrup: When the cake has about 10 minutes left to bake, start the rum syrup. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Once it is melted, stir in the sugar and the water. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat and stir in the rum. Once it is mixed in, return the pan to medium heat for about 30 seconds.
- When the cake comes out of the oven, immediately pour about one-third of the rum syrup (approximately 2/3 cup) over the bottom of the cake. Pour slowly so it has time to seep into the cake. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Invert the cake onto a serving platter. Using a fork or a skewer, poke holes all over the cake – the top, sides, and around the inside. Don't be shy – all of the holes ensure that the rum syrup seeps into the cake evenly. Sloooooowly spoon or brush the remaining rum syrup over the top of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. You want to do this step very slowly (it took me almost 15 minutes) so that the syrup actually seeps into the cake and doesn't just pool on the bottom of the serving dish.
- Allow the cake to cool to room temperature before serving. Leftovers can be kept, tightly wrapped, at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Equipment: Standard 12-cup Bundt pan (you may substitute a 9-inch tube pan). The pan shown in the photos is the Nordic Ware Heritage Bundt Pan.
- Rum: Use your favorite! I typically use Myers dark rum.
- Alcohol-Free Option: To make this cake alcohol-free, substitute milk and rum extract in the cake and try apple juice, orange juice, white grape juice, or apple cider, along with rum extract, in the syrup. (See post above for measurements.)
- Walnuts: You can substitute something else (pecans would be great!) or omit them entirely.
- Vanilla Pudding Mix: This cake utilizes pudding mix to make it ultra-moist; use store-bought or make your own!
- Serving: Serve with fresh fruit, homemade whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or salted caramel sauce.
- Storage: The rum cake can be stored, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Freezing: Rum cake can be frozen, wrapped twice in plastic wrap then aluminum foil and placed in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours, or at room temperature. Do not unwrap until completely thawed.
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
Photography by Ari Laing.
This is fantastic!!
Made it tonight. Substituted cake flour (substitute measurements on side of Swan’s Down box) & melted coconut oil for the canola oil. Cooked perfectly–light, brown & beautiful. I was concerned, when I looked at how much syrup there was (my 16-year old suggested the cake would be nothing but mush). But, this cake soaked it all up, like a champ!
Thanks for the recipe!
Made this yesterday for a December 24 birthday dinner. It’s FAR better than the old Bacardi rum boxed cake mix recipe! The texture was perfect, and the flavors were wonderful – no artificial taste that you can get with boxed mixes. The process was a little unusual, but it all turned out fine. I use a dark metal Bundt pan, and the cake’s color was a beautiful tan. Be sure to butter all the nooks and crannies of the pan and lightly dust it with flour before you scatter the nuts on the bottom. I used golden rum because we were out of dark, and the flavor was very traditional. Everyone raved. I will never make the boxed-mix version again. Thank you!
This is a great recipe and makes a great rum cake. I’ve done this recipe quite a few times and always made a mess with the rum syrup. Making it tonight I used a syringe to inject the rum syrup into the cake, no mess. Fingers crossed!
Hi,
here in india, the instant vanilla pudding mix isn’t available..
can you just help me out here and tell me what exactly can i use to substitute it?
thank you in advance! :)
Hi Radhika, Please see the link in the recipe for a homemade vanilla pudding mix – you can use that.
Having immensely enjoyed making my cake following your ‘from scratch’ recipes, I would like to share my experience with you. What I have to relate is not really a comment and too long for this format, but since I find no way to send you an email, and since you evidently have full editorial control, I assume that you will delete this, which is fine. I am not writing for any 15-minutes of fame; I am writing to share my results. After reading the tale, you may find some place where the experience would be useful to pass along to others.
As stated above, I created the pudding from scratch as a prelude to making the cake. The pudding was so good that I may have added a tad too much to the cake because the cake turned out to be not baked to the color that it should have had. I either did not leave it in the oven long enough, or because my mix was very, very moist, it would have been necessary to bake for something closer to 70 minutes.
In any case, when skewering the cake, I did not get the sense that it was under-baked,; the skewer came out clean. The main clue was that the top of the cake was only slightly browned and the sides were almost still white. It was not until I had committed to plating the cake that I decided it would need some additional oven time. So, what do you do when you have your cake already glazed and sitting on a glass stand for presentation? If you are me, you put the whole shooting match back into the oven and see if you can get something good from a few minutes on broil!
So, by now you, and all your readers will be laughing out loud, but guess what — I almost pulled it off. With my fingers crossed that I was not going to witness the shattering of my precious glass serving dish, I managed to add significant coloring to the top and enough on the sides to get closer to what it should have been with another 5-6 minutes at about 300 degrees.
Now, here is the reason for exposing my ineptness, the top of my cake actually exceeded even yours! The extra, intense broilering toasted the nuts, and crystallized the glazing that I had already infused. I know that you baking pros would never make my mistake, but my suggestion is that you might want to document a method or preparation that would involve something like that blow-torch process that Jullia Childs showed for finishing off a meringue pie. You are the expert, so you will, I am sure come up with the right way to do it, all I am really saying is that the cake gets a really, really special effect when additional heat is applied to the top after the glazing has been done.
I have only tasted a rum cake once and it was a wedding cake, but I must say I love this recipe to the point I am baking a second cake for a Christmas party. Thank you so very much for this recipe. I will try your other recipes very spoon. This cake is heavenly amd super scrumptious.
I want to make this as a tiered wedding cake.
Is it 1.5 x recipe for a 10 inch cake?
Can it be stacked?
Can I put ganache and fondant on it?
Note I have made it many times as a bundt and cup cakes, this is my all time favourite recipe.
Thank you
I have not tried adapting this to a layer cake, so I couldn’t say how much the recipe would need to be increased for a 10-inch cake. I also don’t know about stacking, ganache or fondant. Since it’s for a wedding, I would suggest doing a trial run to see if all of those things work.
This is awesome and easy , I made it on T.G. While the bird was in the oven for my son who loves rum cake . It was YUMMO!
But ,yes fresh ingredients are a must. I threw out my flour, baking soda,and powder and began anew this holiday season-
otherwise it can be a disaster. I will bake this MANY times again.
Hi ! I have made this cake from your recipe many times and its the most requested cake from my family, co-workers and friend, so I sincerely thank you for sharing this awesome recipe, my cakes are always moist with the soothing rum flavor and excellent presentation…. I do have a question regarding the flour, is it possible to use cake flour ? if so, what would I need to omit ? if not, I will stick to the original- just curious !
Thanks again for sharing this aawesome recipe ! God Bless You !!!
Hi Yolanda, Cake flour will create a more tender crumb; it will definitely affect the texture, but I haven’t tried using it yet, so I can’t say for sure what modifications would need to be made.
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I have done it three times since September 30 and I have nothing but wonderful compliments. A Peurto Rican man said it was just like how his mother made it. My boss told me, ‘Are you sure you are not Italian?’ Apparently it reminds him of the Baba Au Rhum but better! So I did tell everyone where I got the recipe from. I will definitely try many of your recipes very soon! Thanks again!
Made this rum cake last Thanksgiving and it came out great and delicious can’t wait to bake it again this holiday season 2014. Thank you very much Michelle,for your fantastic recipe and website
I love homemade rum cake. Your post is helpful for me, your content and all comments also will be so much good.
Has anyone tried this as a cupcake version instead of a bundt cake??
I am going to try this recipe today, sounds good, after I bake the cake I will comment on how it turned out.
I’m making this cake for my grocer, he love homemade cakes and so do I.
The cake came out perfectly moist and is sooo good. My husband enjoyed except for the walnuts and I took some to work for co-workers to try and they loved it too. I have to make another one for them and this time I will more add some rum. Thanks for sharing this recipe. No more boxed cakes for me!
I was longing for my mom’s best ever rum cake that she made by doctoring up from a yellow cake mix but I didn’t have any mixes on hand when I went searching for a “from scratch” recipe. This recipe is amazing… so rich and moist. I’m not a great baker but this was easy to make and came out perfectly. This will be my new go to cake recipe.
May I substitute white rum for the dark rum.
Sure!
I made this cake in a loaf pan. This cake will be the one of the cakes that will be served for my daughter’s 21st b-day. I had a little batter left over to make a couple cupcakes. I just tried one. It was so delicious! *This recipe is definitely a keeper. =)
I’m sure she will love her “drunken” cake. Thank you for posting this recipe with the detailed instructions. *Would you happen to know how to make a chocolate version? Thanks again for everything. It is appreciated.
P.S. The only thing I did differently was to substitute pecans in place of the walnuts. I toasted the nuts in the oven at 350degrees for 8mintues or until they were fragrant. I turned the nuts once during the cooking time.
Hi Rebecca, You’re such a sweet mom! What a fun cake to celebrate your daughter’s 21st! I have never tried to make a chocolate rum cake, but it sounds phenomenal! I’ll add it to my list :)
i am too young to purchase the rum needed for this cake, but i can buy the rum extract. how do i adjust the recipe accordingly for this to work?
Hi Sammy, I would probably Google for the particular brand you have, what the equivalent is for actual rum – some are stronger than others. You’ll obviously need a lot less than the rum.
Michelle
i live in India
As per your recipe the following ingredients are not easily available in India
pl suggest substitutes for
all purpose flour
cornstarch
kosher salt
DIY instant vanilla pudding mix
Bundt pan
Thanks
All purpose flour = maida
cornstarch = cornflour (you’ll get it under the brand name weikfield if I am correct)
Kosher salt – i used normal salt – decrease the quantity a bit
DIY pudding : click on the link that Michelle has enclosed in the recipe.
Bundt pan – easily available at the utensil store/bake ware section
My late aunt had a rum cake recipe that called for the cake to be glazed several times over the course of 5 days. Of course I no longer have her recipe and am begging any family members who might have it (no luck so far) to share – it was fabulous. Have you ever heard of a rum cake with repeated glazings?
Hi Wendy, I’ve heard of multiple glazes, but never over the course of days, only within a few hours of each other.
I made this cake for my nephew’s birthday party (his parents requested an adult cake in addition to the two children’s cakes). Everyone really liked it a lot and my dad has even requested one for his birthday every year. And that’s saying quite a bit considering my dad has only ever requested pie for his birthday.
This cake was amazing. All I did was omit the nuts but I made a drizzle of icing sugar and rum to drizzle over the top instead.
I found it way too much syrup for the cake, tasted alright but it looked really ugly…
While I have dark rum, I also have other flavors that I got when I was at the Tortuga factory. Will it affect how the cake bakes if I use a different kind of rum? I was planning on using their pineapple rum. Thanks!
Hi Lori, I think using something different, like a pineapple rum (mmm!) would be just fine. Enjoy!
Do it! I am planning to try it with Cruzan Vanilla Rum. Mmmm.
Thank you!!! About 30-40 years ago the Giant Food Store in Washington DC sold a rum cake exactly like this recipe. I have been searching for a recipe for 30+ years as I no longer live in the DC area. If the store still sells that cake I am sure it is full of HFCS and preservatives. This cake came out EXACTLY like the cake in my memory – except the rum flavor was more yummy! I am sure the cake from Giant had rum flavor and not actual rum. BTW I used Pecans because hubby had eaten all the walnuts.
Thanks for the recipe.
Hey! I love your site! I had a question about the flour used…Can I use cake flour instead of all purpose? I’ve had no luck with all purpose flour in my baking and used cake flour instead, and it turned out great.
-Thanks:)
Hi Alysa, Using cake flour instead of all-purpose will affect the texture of the cake, and I have not tested it with cake flour. Please let me know how it turns out if you try it.
I made this for my church’s cake auction a few months ago. It turned out perfectly. Made $350 for my church! I was asked to make a cake for the upcoming crab feed. Guess what I’m making again? Yup!
My boss brought this cake from the Carribean and after trying it I decided to make one by myself. The recipe is easy, the taste is GREAT! and it doesn’t matter that my cake fell on the floor while I was inverting it :) (fortunately it stayed in almost one piece :D), it won’t last long :)
I wanted to make my rum cake from scratch as well, I’m very happy that I found and tried this recipe it’s the bomb. For my first baking a rum cake scratch it came out totally awesome!!! Thank you!