Easy Bacardi Rum Cake with Chocolate Glaze
Submitted by sgirwin
Classic Bacardi rum bundt cake from a yellow cake mix and vanilla pudding base, soaked in buttery rum glaze and drizzled with chocolate. The legendary boozy holiday cake.
YIELD
16 servingsPREP
15 minCOOK
60 minREADY
100 minBacardi rum cake is the legendary cake-mix recipe that’s been circulating Christmas card recipe exchanges since the 1970s. It earns its devoted following honestly. The yellow cake mix doctored with vanilla pudding mix and dark rum bakes into a tender, moist Bundt that gets pricked all over and soaked in a buttery rum glaze.
The pricking-and-glazing technique is the move that makes this work. Holes poked across the top let the warm rum glaze soak deep into the cake instead of just running off the surface. Brushing the glaze on in stages, letting each layer absorb before adding more, transforms the cake from merely flavored to fully saturated.
The chocolate drizzle on top is a clever upgrade over the standard recipe. A simple ganache of semi-sweet chocolate and butter drizzled artfully across the glaze creates dramatic contrast against the golden cake. Decorate with chopped walnuts and maraschino cherries for the full festive presentation. This is a serious party cake that gets better on day two as the rum continues to mellow. Pair with strong coffee or a tiny pour of dark rum on the side.
Pro Tips
- Cool the cake in the pan for 25 minutes before inverting as written. Less time and it falls apart; more time and it sticks.
- Prick the inverted cake all over with a wooden skewer before glazing. The deeper and more numerous the holes, the better the glaze penetrates.
- Apply glaze in stages. Brush, wait 5 minutes, brush again. This builds maximum rum absorption.
- Let the cake rest at room temperature overnight before serving. The flavors marry and deepen dramatically.
Variations
- Add 1 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts to the cake batter for a nuttier texture.
- Swap dark rum for spiced rum or bourbon for a different flavor profile.
- Use a chocolate cake mix and rum-spiked chocolate glaze for a chocolate-rum variation.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 325℉ (160℃).
Grease and flour 10 inch bundt pan.
Mix together cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, rum and oil until smooth.
Pour into prepared pan.
Bake 1 hour.
Cool in pan 25 minutes.
Invert onto serving plate.
Prick top.
Spoon and brush Rum Glaze evenly over cake, allowing the cake to absorb the glaze.
When cake is cooled, drizzle with Chocolate Glaze Topping.
RUM GLAZE: Melt butter in saucepan, stir in water and sugar.
Boil 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in rum.
CHOCOLATE GLAZE TOPPING: Melt chocolate and butter over very low heat in heavy saucepan.
After chocolate glaze topping has been drizzled on cake, may be decorated with chopped walnuts and marichino cherries.
Comments
This is the original Bacardi Rum Cake recipe first printed in the mid 70's.
Thank you so much for posting this.
All of the other recipes I've read claim to be the original, but they are not. The original never called for nuts.
I agree. This is the original. Somewhere I still have the recipe clipped from a bacardi ad in a magazine. It called for this chocolate glaze. I think it might have mentioned that if desired you could sprinkle pecans on top, but definitely didn't call for nuts in the cake itself. I usually skip the nuts. Best cake ever. :)