Made from scratch without the crutch of cake mix, this homemade rum cake is perfectly moist, extra buttery, and flavored with rum. Top with boozy butter rum glaze and serve warm or cold. Rum cake doesn’t require a special occasion, but it’s perfect for the holidays!
I’ve had many requests for rum cake and I’m so excited to finally share my version with you! This is my 100% homemade rum Bundt cake and it’s even better than it looks and sounds.
This Rum Cake Is:
- Completely from scratch
- Very buttery and moist
- Lightly flavored with rum
- Heavily flavored with butter rum glaze
- Filled with brown sugar, orange, and buttery flavors
- Not as dense as pound cake, not as soft as white cake (in between!)
- Delicious warm + delicious cold
- Topped with butter rum glaze
Totally From Scratch
Instead of using cake mix and pudding mix, I took a look at some of my from-scratch Bundt cakes. Like vanilla cake and white cake, I have a standard Bundt cake recipe that I use for different flavors including chai cinnamon swirl Bundt cake and cranberry orange Bundt cake. Both are some of the best cakes I’ve ever made because they’re easy, insanely buttery, extra moist, and dense… without being too heavy.
With a quality base recipe like this, the options are endless. Rum cake, let’s go!
Rum Cake Ingredients
Because they’re so large, Bundt cakes have a tendency to dry out. To avoid this, it’s important to use the careful ratio and ingredients listed below.
- Flour: We use sturdy all-purpose flour as the base of this Bundt cake. It’s strong enough to hold up all the liquid ingredients. I don’t recommend swapping in cake flour because it’s simply too light.
- Baking Powder: 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder is more than we use for a typical cake, but it’s needed to help this hefty cake rise.
- Salt + Vanilla Extract: Both salt and vanilla extract add flavor.
- Butter: This is a very buttery cake, so expect a lot of butter!
- Orange Zest: Trust me on this. Orange, rum, and brown sugar are a trio you need in your baking. The orange zest adds a fleck of background flavor without competing with the rum. My husband, who isn’t usually super descriptive besides the simple “it’s good”, complimented the delicious orange flavor.
- Sugars: Paired with orange and rum, brown sugar is definitely welcome. We use brown sugar as the primary sweetener, with just a touch of granulated sugar.
- Rum: We’re replacing most of the liquid with rum. You need 1/2 cup of regular, dark, or spiced rum. I tested with several and they’re all fantastic. We really liked the cakes with dark or spiced rum best. It does not need to be a fancy rum!
- Eggs, Sour Cream, + Milk: 5 eggs, sour cream, and milk add moisture. It’s a lot of volume but remember, we want a mega moist cake with a buttery crumb.
- Pecans: Perhaps the best part of all, pecans line the bottom (which ends up being the top) of the Bundt cake pan. This added texture, paired with the butter, rum, brown sugar, orange, and butter rum glaze, is completely unforgettable—probably the best part of this cake.
Before you Bundt
- Bundt Pan: Use a large Bundt pan that holds 10-12 cup capacity. I love this one and this one. Both are nonstick, but I always grease it with nonstick spray just to be safe. The Bundt cake releases so easily.
- Curdled Ingredients: The wet ingredients will look somewhat curdled before you add the dry ingredients– this is due to the ranging temperatures and textures of the ingredients. It’s normal. The butter may be warmer than the eggs, the sour cream may be colder than the butter, etc. It will all come together when the dry ingredients are added.
Butter Rum Glaze
Let’s finish this beauty off with a butter rum glaze that sets. (Meaning: it won’t stay drippy and wet.) Like the brown butter icing I use on my apple blondies, we’ll whip this up with some heat. Melt butter with a little rum in a small saucepan or microwave, then stir in vanilla extract, confectioners’ sugar, and a pinch of salt. The icing is thin at first, but thickens as it cools.
In fact, you might notice two different consistencies of the glaze in these photos. (2 test cakes, same cake + glaze recipe.) I drizzled the glazes on the cakes, but the thicker glaze had cooled for 10 minutes.
Thick or thin, warm or cool, this butter rum glaze is liquid gold. It would be incredible on my iced oatmeal cookies and peach Bundt cake, too.
Can You Taste the Alcohol?
The cake itself has 1/2 cup of rum in the batter. It has a light rum flavor and the alcohol bakes out. You’re also not consuming the entire cake (well, hopefully not!), so don’t expect to get tipsy off of 1 or 2 slices. The butter rum glaze, however, has a fairly strong rum flavor. It’s not cooked, so the alcohol is there. Again, you aren’t consuming the entire cake and 1-2 spoonfuls of glaze won’t get you tipsy.
Use your best judgement serving to minors, pregnant women, or anyone abstaining from alcohol.
Want to skip the alcohol altogether? Replace the rum in the cake and the glaze with milk.
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Homemade Butter Rum Cake
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: serves 12
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Made from scratch without the crutch of cake mix, this homemade rum cake is perfectly moist, extra buttery, and flavored with rum. Top with boozy butter rum glaze and serve warm or cold. Review recipe notes prior to beginning.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (130g) finely chopped pecans
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups (340g)Â unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- zest from 1/2 orange (about 1 Tbsp)
- 5 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120g) full fat sour cream, at room temperature*
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (120ml) rum or spiced rum*
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk, at room temperature
Butter Rum Icing
- 3 Tablespoons (43g) unsalted butter
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) rum or spiced rum*
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- small pinch of salt (a bit less than 1/8 teaspoon)
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease a 10-inch Bundt pan. Spoon pecans evenly into the Bundt pan.
- Make the cake: Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside. Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment beat the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and orange zest together until creamed, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla and beat on medium speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. The mixture will look curdled; that’s ok—it will come together when you add the dry ingredients.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and begin mixing on low speed. As the mixer runs, slowly pour in the rum and milk. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat until the batter is completely combined. Batter is thick.
- Pour/spoon the cake batter evenly over the pecans.
- Bake for 55-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean with just a couple lightly moist crumbs. This is a large, heavy cake so don’t be alarmed if it takes a little longer in your oven. Mine always takes about 55 minutes.
- Once done, remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 45 minutes to 2 hours inside the pan. Then, invert the slightly cooled Bundt cake onto a wire rack or serving dish. (You can glaze and serve it while warm, or wait for it to cool completely.)
- Make the glaze: Melt the butter with the rum in a small saucepan over medium heat. If using the microwave, melt the butter in the microwave, then stir in the rum. Stir in the vanilla extract, salt, and confectioners’ sugar. Drizzle warm glaze over cake before slicing and serving. Glaze quickly thickens and sets as it cools. If desired, serve with maraschino cherries.
- Cover leftover cake tightly and store at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the entire cake ahead of time (before topping with icing). Cover cooled cake and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before icing and serving. Baked cake can be frozen up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature (if desired) before icing and serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 10-inch Bundt Pan (I own and love this one and this one) | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Cooling Rack
- Sour Cream: You can use 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Just as moist and delicious!
- Rum:Â Use your favorite rum including light rum, dark rum, or spiced rum. See How Alcoholic is This Rum Cake above the recipe. If desired, swap the rum in the cake and glaze for milk.
- Pecans and/or Orange Zest: Both are optional, but add incredible flavor. I don’t recommend leaving out either. Replace the pecans with walnuts, if desired.
- Layer Cake: Use my vanilla cake recipe and replace 1/2 cup of buttermilk with 1/2 cup of rum. (Use 1 cup buttermilk + 1/2 cup rum.) Sprinkle the bottom of each lined cake pan with 1/3 cup chopped pecans before adding the batter. Replace 2-3 Tablespoons of milk in the frosting with rum.
This was a huge hit at my book club meeting last night. It was easy and delicious.
Hi Sally,
I love your baking recipes! Unfortunately, this was the first one that didn’t turn out right. For some reason the cake was very dry. I’ve never had this happen with your other recipes so I don’t know what went wrong.
Absolutely delicious! I realized when I went to make the glaze that I was short about a half cup of confectioner’s sugar. I just cut the other ingredients in half and it still turned out great with less glaze. The cake was still so yummy and dense after three days. I will be making this again!
Hi Sally.
I love all you recipes and have been very successful following your instruction to the T.
I made this cake cake for Christmas eve dinner and the cake looked and taste amazing. The cake however seemed very dense and found pockets of liquid(?) here and there as we sliced the cake. Could it be rum ? I baked it 55 mins and toothpick inserted turned out very clean. What do you think
caused it… all my ingredients are room temp… i creamed butter no more than 2 mins…
Hi Koko, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. How odd! We’re not sure what those liquid pockets could be (perhaps butter that was not properly incorporated?), but if it was overly dense, the cake batter could simply have been over mixed. It’s a dense cake, but over mixing can make it too dense. We hope this helps, and thank you so much for giving this one a try!
Hi, Sally,
I am going to make this for my husband’s coworkers for their last day before Christmas break. The glaze cannot be boozy, so how can I make it so the alcohol cooks out?
Hi Nicola, you can swap the rum with the same amount of milk instead. You’ll still get plenty of flavor from the cake! Hope it’s a hit.
This looks delicious!! Can this recipe be converted to a loaf pan or two? And if so, what would the baking time be?
Hi Sue! This recipe will work well in 2 9×5-inch loaf pans. We’re unsure of the exact bake time, but keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
I am making this for a holiday dinner Friday. I love one user’s suggestion of presoaked raisins instead of nuts. I almost skipped over this because of the nuts. Could there be more suggestions for alternatives in all your recipes when a common allergy like nuts is in a recipe? It would be SUPER helpful and considerate. Ty!
Can the mixed fruits soaked in rum and brandy be added to this recipe? Making it a Rum Fruit Cake for Christmas?
Hi Stephanie, adding some chopped fruit shouldn’t be a problem. If the fruit isn’t dried and seems especially wet, you may want to lightly dry it with a towel to remove a bit of the excess moisture. Let us know if you give it a try.
Do you think I could make this in mini loaf pans for gifting?
Hi Martha, that shouldn’t be a problem! Bake time will vary depending on the size of your mini loaf pans. Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Hi Sally – Thanks for this recipe. How do you think using cake flour instead of all-purpose flour would work out?
Hi Gail, we don’t recommend swapping in cake flour because it’s simply too light. All-purpose flour is strong enough to hold up all the liquid ingredients in this recipe.
I’ve made many pound cakes over years and this one is one of the best. Just the right amount of rum and cooked evenly all the way through. Beautiful presentation with the pecans and frosting drizzled on top. Very good and worth making again. I live at sea level and it needed 80 minutes to be fully done. It wasn’t overcooked or dry, in fact a very moist cake.