Jamaican Me Crazy Rum Cake

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When I was a young adult I went on several cruises with my parents and my brother in the Caribbean.  In addition to all the awesome food and gorgeous beaches we liked to do some sight seeing on each place we landed.  At one place we had the most delicious rum cakes.  This was a place that only made rum cakes and they had a variety of flavors that you could try.  I liked them all and wanted to try making them on my own one day.

It turns out one day wouldn’t come for about 15 years.  That’s the way life goes.  In fact, I had forgotten about the delicious Caribbean rum cakes until I received a bag of Door County Coffee Jamaican Me Crazy.  With one sip I was totally reminded of that rum cake.  This coffee is a medium roast with hints of rum and vanilla. 

I started out by making the rum cake.   I used a traditional recipe but then I added in half a cup of the Jamaican Me Crazy Coffee into the actual cake.   As it was baking the entire house smelled like sugar, butter, and rum.   It was awesome.  

Then I had to think about the syrup.   All rum cakes are soaked in or infused with or glazed with some type of rum mixture.   Instead of making mine strong with rum I chose to go another route.  I did want to use some rum but I wanted to take it to work so I didn’t want to use too much.  Plus I wanted the flavor of the coffee to come out.  I ended up making a caramel mixture with the coffee and rum to infuse the cake with.  The mixture was so good I could have eaten it with a spoon (and I may have…just a little bit).

Once the cake came out of the oven I poked it with holes and poured the caramel rum mixture over top of it and let it soak in.   I want to put a note in here that I had to make this cake twice because of this caramel mixture.  The first time I made it in a Bundt pan and it totally stuck and I had a massive disaster.  To say I was upset was an understatement.  Often times when I fail that badly I won’t remake the recipe but it tasted so good I knew I had too.

My second attempt was in a cake pan that had a piece of parchment paper on the bottom.  I had no trouble getting that out of the pan.   I finally gave the finished cake a try and it sent me back to the Caribbean.  The cake is filled with flavors of caramel, coffee, vanilla, and rum.  I enjoyed it with a cup of coffee which was absolute perfection.

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Jamaican Me Crazy Rum Cake

Yield: serves 12

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

A butter rum cake made with coffee that is soaked in a caramel coffee rum mixture.

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Ingredients

For the cake:

• 2 c. flour
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 c. (2 sticks) butter
• 1/3 c. milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 c. rum
• 1/2 c. brewed coffee (I used Jamaican Me Crazy)
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla

For the syrup:

• 1 stick butter
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 c. brewed coffee (I used Jamaican me Crazy)
• 1/4 c. rum
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place a parchment round in the bottom of a 9 inch cake pan and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.
3. Add the butter, milk, and eggs and beat with a mixer on medium speed and mix until well combined.
4. Add in the rum, coffee, and vanilla and beat on medium speed until well combined.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. Meanwhile, heat the butter, brown sugar, salt, and coffee in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil and allow the mixture to boil for 8-10 minutes or until it has thickened.
7. Reduce heat to medium low then add in the rum and vanilla and simmer for 2 minutes.
8. Poke holes in the still warm cake that is still in the pan. Spoon the syrup mixture over top of the cake and let rest 5 minutes or until most of the syrup is absorbed. Spoon more syrup over top and again wait 5 minutes. Repeat until all of the syrup is used.
9. All the rum cake to sit for at least 2 hours. Remove from the pan and serve with coffee.

Notes

A Hezzi-D Original recipe