Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Rum Cake



I spend a lot of time thinking about food, probably much more than I should. Largely, when I’m not thinking about recipes to invent, I’m thinking about the food that I enjoyed back in the old days when I did none of the cooking and all of the eating. Last week, for whatever reason, I found myself thinking about my mother’s Rum Cake. I didn’t appreciate this nearly enough when I was a kid. Back then, cake was not cake unless it had icing, lots and lots of icing. These days I appreciate a simple cake that is light on topping, but big on taste. Wondering if the Rum Cake was nearly as good as I'd remembered, I decided that I must make it, and started digging through one of my favorite possessions, my mother’s recipe box. I searched recipe by recipe, TWICE, to no avail. I did find a lot that I plan to try, but no Rum Cake. It was distressing.
Two days later, when I was talking to my dad, he mentioned that he'd found a piece of paper in the bread box when he reached for the package of sandwich buns in order to make himself a nice ham and swiss. Now, he has been using this bread box for nearly three years since mother passed away, and had never seen this slip of paper. When I asked him what it was, he said that he had set it aside for me because he thought I might want to have a look at it. You guessed it, it was the recipe for Rum Cake. (Cue the spooky music.) It is not often that I am rendered speechless (really, ask anyone), but I was then. It was almost as if mother was helping me out here.
As it turned out, it was as good as I’d remembered. It is amazingly easy to make, and yields a tasty, booze-soaked, sinus-opening goodness that will have you craving it morning, noon, and night. (Not that I would recommend it in the morning because of the alcohol content, then again, on some days, I would, so use your own judgment.) Her recipe, exactly as dad found it, is below. The sizes of cake mixes and pudding mixes, alas, have been reduced. I had no problem using the current 16.5 ounce cake mix and 3-1/4 ounce instant pudding.



14 comments:

martinealison said...

Bonjour chère amie,

Une belle surprise donc ! Parfois nous sommes agréablement consternés en retrouvant par le biais de quelqu'un ce que nous cherchons !... Merci pour le partage de cette recette qui représente toute votre enfance. Et il doit être bien bon ce gâteau au rhume !

Gros bisous ♡

Linda said...

What a great story! Yes I heard the spooky music - how wild. It looks as good as I remember too. How interesting about the box sizes.

S H Elliott said...

This reminds me so much of my deceased mother in law's rum cake. She made one every Christmas. How cool that the recipe presented itself to your dad! 😊 Sheika

Unknown said...

Beautiful blog! Your Rum Cake looks delicious.

Kim of Mo Betta said...

YUM! This looks & sounds fabulous. I use that "souped up" cake mix recipe often...can't wait to try it with the rum :-)

Jennifer@MyFlagstaffHome said...

My husband is going to love this! Thanks for sharing at My Flagstaff Home.

Jennifer

Unknown said...

Don't you just love smiles from heaven like that? Looks delicious to me!

thepaintedapron.com said...

hi Patti, I used to make a similar cake way back when, I've got to try your recipe, it looks so delicious!!! It seems like a lot of retro recipes are making a comeback and I love it! Pinning to my bucket list!!
Jenna

Anonymous said...

Booze plus cake...it's hard to go wrong with this combo. Thanks for sharing what likes a reeeealllly yummy recipe!
--G
gingerwroot.com

Gardening Helen said...

Just looking at this makes my mouth water! Thanks for sharing on the "What's for Dinner" linky!

Miz Helen said...

Patti,
This is a delicious cake and wish I had a slice right now.  Thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday and hope to see you again real soon!
Miz Helen

traceyatwaterintowine said...

Oh my I think I'm gonna have to try this. Looks so good. Your neighbour at Celebrate it Sunday this week.

Jennifer@MyFlagstaffHome said...

This wonderful recipe will be featured this week at My Flagstaff Home!

Jennifer

Shirley said...

What a wonderful story of finding your mother's cake recipe. I'm still trying to make my way through my Mom's recipes also. Thanks for sharing with us at Merry Monday.