Rum Cake — 🎂😋🎊 A double dose of rum in this EASY cake that’s supremely moist, buttery, and literally juicy from all the rum!! The perfect make-ahead holiday entertaining cake that everyone will LOVE!
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Easy Recipe for Rum Cake
One of the very first trips I took with my then-fiancé was to Grand Cayman, where we stumbled into a gift shop that was sampling Caribbean rum cake.
It tasted so amazing because it was moist and literally juicy because it was so loaded with rum. I had enough samples to likely equal a piece of cake, felt a little guilty, and bought a cake to take home before leaving the island.
I flew home with my cake, cut into it, only to be sorely disappointed because it was dry, not juicy, and there was hardly any rum flavor. That led me to believe they were literally pouring and dousing the cake samples at the shop with straight rum. It worked though because it got me to buy a cake.
I’ve always wanted to recreate that perfectly juicy rum cake I ate long ago. Fast forward nearly 20 years (boy, time flies) and in advance of the holidays this year I (finally) made a rum cake. It’s everything you want in a rum cake!
Supremely moist yet surprising light, buttery, and loaded with bold rum flavor but in a balanced sense so that it doesn’t feel like you’re eating rum. Not that some people would complain about that, but I digress.
Rum Cake Ingredients
I opted to make this rum cake recipe with cake mix — don’t worry, the end result tastes 100% homemade yet the cake mix saves you time and energy!
I’ve gone into more detail further down this post on which type of cake mix and rum I recommend when making this rum bundt cake recipe.
To make this rum-soaked cake recipe, you’ll need:
- Yellow cake mix
- Instant vanilla pudding mix (or French vanilla)
- Eggs
- Water
- Oil
- Dark rum
- Vanilla extract (or coconut extract)
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Kosher salt
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Rum Cake
The cake is so ridiculously easy to make! If you’ve never made a cake recipe with rum in it, you’re in for a treat.
- Add all the ingredients in a bowl at once, then mix just until combined.
- Turn the batter into a prepared bundt pan. Spray it well with cookig spray so your cake doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Bake the cake until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- After baking, poke holes with a fork over the top (bottom after you invert it) of the cake while it’s still in the pan, add rum sauce, invert, and repeat with hole poking and sauce adding. Make sure to gets it on all sides of the cake.
- Allow cake to rest for about 1 to 2 hours to absorb sauce before slicing and serving.
Rum Cake Glaze Tip
If the rum glaze for the cake crystallizes before you can drizzle it over the inverted cake, don’t panic! Just give it a good stir and drizzle away. This rum syrup is going to soak in without issue!
Recipe FAQs
I wanted to keep this a super easy rum cake recipe, and for me that means using a baking shortcut. There are scratch recipes online you’re welcome to use, but my family loves this how this rum cake with cake mix tastes!
I prefer using Duncan Hines yellow cake mix for this recipe. Otherwise, any yellow or golden cake mix should work. Note that when I originally made this cake in November 2017, 18.25-ounce boxes of yellow cake mix were the standard. Since then, boxes are more commonly found in the 15.25-ounce size range. Although I have not personally tested the cake using a 15.25-ounce box of cake mix, I am sure it will be fine.
I used Meyer’s Dark Rum (not sponsored by them in any way) because I wanted bolder, richer, and sweeter flavor than a white rum like Bacardi can deliver. You could also try a spiced rum like Captain Morgan or even a coconut rum like Malibu.
If you test the Malibu option, I would use half Malibu and half of another rum because I could envision an all-Malibu cake becoming cloyingly coconutty, sweet, and off-putting.
Tip: If you love rum desserts, be sure to make my easy no-bake rum balls as well!
Yes! I find the cake mix rum cake tastes better as time passes and that it peaks about day three, which makes it an awesome make-ahead-of-the-party kind of cake. Love recipes like this when you’re entertaining because you can make it in advance, set it aside, and forget about it until the event. It’s the quintessential buttery rum cake and perfect for the holiday season.
I’m sure it can, but I prefer using a bundt pan because it makes for a taller cake that’s perfect for soaking up all the rum sauce. But if you don’t have a 12-cup bundt pan, I recommend googling a baking pan conversion chart to see which of your other pan(s) will work instead.
Extremely unlikely! There’s 1 cup of rum total in the cake and glaze, but I imagine most of it cooks off during the baking process.
The beauty of this double rum cake is that the rum acts as a preservative (it is alcohol, after all!) so it can last up to 10 days on your counter without issue! Just be sure to store it in an airtight container.
You can if you’d like. Chopped walnuts, pecans, or slivered almonds are logical choices. I’d start with 1/2 cup, see how it looks, and add more if you’d like.
Store cake airtight at room temperature for up to 10 days; do not refrigerate. The rum acts like a preservative, hence why the cake is good for so long! You can wrap it with plastic wrap, aluminum foil, or if you have a cake stand with topper that’s great.
The flavors marry in this rum bundt cake as time passes and I find this cake tastes better as time passes (about day 3 it peaks).
omg soooo good! my husband loves rum flavor cake so i decided to make it for father’s day as our dessert and everyone devoured this cake! 10/10 hands down! — Ivis
Recipe Video Tutorial
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Rum Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 15 ounces yellow cake mix, (one standard sized box, see note below)
- 3.4 ounces instant vanilla pudding mix, (one standard sized box)
- 4 large eggs
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- ½ cup dark rum, I used Meyer’s Dark Rum
- 2 to 3 teaspoons vanilla or coconut extract, I used coconut
Rum Sauce
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, 1 1/2 sticks
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
- ½ cup dark rum, I used Meyer’s Dark Rum
Instructions
Make the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 325F. Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan very well with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- To a large bowl, add the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, oil, rum, extract of your choice, and beat with a handheld electric mixer on high power until smooth and combined; about 2 minutes.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula. The batter is thin, looks a bit skimpy for the size of the pan, but the cake rises dramatically while baking.
- Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs. Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack.
- When the cake has about 10 to 15 minutes left to bake, start making the rum sauce.
Make the Rum Sauce:
- Use caution, focus, and take small children out of the kitchen because the mixture is insanely hot and flammable and you're going to be whisking the entire time.
- To a medium high-sided medium saucepan, add the butter and heat over medium heat to melt.
- Add the sugar, water, and bring to a boil over medium-high/high heat. Allow mixture to boil rapidly for 4 to 5 minutes; whisk constantly so it doesn't burn (your shoulder should burn). The mixture should be white, frothy, and fluffy-looking.
- Remove pan from the heat and using extreme caution, add the rum while whisking because the sauce will bubble up vigorously when the rum is added.
- Return pan to the heat for 1 minute; whisk constantly. This helps cook off some of the 'raw' alcohol taste.
- Add the salt and stir to combine.
- Transfer the sauce to a 2-cup glass measuring cup; you will have about 2 cups of sauce.
- Poke holes with a fork all over the surface of the cake (which later is concealed since it's the cake base when you invert it and remove the cake from the pan). I 'stabbed' the cake in about 75 places with a fork.
- Slowly pour about 1 cup sauce over the surface, taking your time so that the sauce soaks in; set remaining 1 cup sauce aside. Allow cake to rest for about 1 hour to absorb the sauce.
- Invert the cake onto a cake stand or serving platter and 'stab' the cake with a fork again, in about 75 places over the top and some on the sides.
- Slowly and carefully pour the remaining sauce into the holes. If the sauce has crystallized, that's okay; just whisk it for a few seconds before adding it. I slowly add some sauce, and sort of 'press' it in with a spatula, and repeat. Some will pool down the sides onto the cake stand, it's unavoidable and okay.
- Allow cake to rest for about 1 to 2 hours to absorb sauce before slicing and serving.
Video
Notes
- Note regarding cake mix: when I originally made this cake in November 2017, 18.25-ounce boxes of yellow cake mix were the standard. Since then, boxes are more commonly found in the 15.25-ounce size range. Although I have not personally tested the cake using a 15.25-ounce box of cake mix, I am sure it will be fine. I am partial to Duncan Hines cake mix.
- Storing this cake: The flavors marry as time passes and I find this cake tastes better as time passes (about day 3 it peaks). Store cake airtight at room temp for up to 10 days; do not refrigerate. Recipe is intended for those for whom alcohol is legal and appropriate.
- Cake adapted from AllRecipes, Rum Sauce adapted from Brown Eyed Baker.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Originally posted November 3, 2017 and reposted December 25, 2020 with updated text.
I’m curious why you say not to refrigerate? Do you think that changes the flavor/texture?
I mean, you could refrigerate it, but I wouldn’t because a refrigerator dries things out. What happens to a piece of cheese in the fridge if it’s not wrapped or sealed well? It turns dry and hard. That is not what I want to have happen to my cake!
I made this cake and at tgexsame time, made a rum cake from scratch. I gave a slice of this cake and tge home cake to my mother and husband. I also did the same, except tgey didn’t know which was from scratch. they both selected this cake being more flavorful and moister. we all thought tge scratch would be the best rum cake! this is the rum cake i will make from now on!! highly recommend!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Debbie, and I love hearing about this bake off that you did. A totally scratch cake vs. a doctored up box cake (mine) and that mine won! In my opinion, the texture and being more moist is due to a box of pudding mix too and the oil. Most scratch cakes use butter. But the thing is…oil makes softer cakes than butter, it’s a scientific fact.
In the flavor department, again, the pudding probably helped, along with the higher than typical amount of vanilla extract, and of course, companies like Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker DO know how to make cake mix :) Thanks for recommending my recipe!
At what point do you recommend removing the cake from the bundt pan?
I wrote this “Allow cake to rest for about 1 to 2 hours to absorb sauce before slicing and serving.” So about that long.
You make the cake, poke holes, pour 1 cup of sauce into it while it’s in the cake pan. Wait 1 hour.
Then, invert the cake, place it on a platter, poke more holes, pour the remaining 1 cup sauce over the top. Wait 1 hour. Or longer if desired.
Slice and serve.