Better than the Bahamas: Golden Rum Cake

St. Patrick's Day is known for it's drunken debauchery, but I am just not a fan of beer. I'd much rather spend the holiday trying out new boozy baking, so that's exactly what I did.

After having a rum cake at La Palma in Chicago, I desperately wanted to bake my own rum cake. I couldn't get enough about the sweet rum that keeps the whole cake moist, sweet and a little kick to it. I found this Golden Rum Cake Recipe at AllRecipes and convinced my boyfriend to let me make it when I visited him in Georgia. Truthfully, it wasn't that hard. Boozy cake on St. Patty's will always be welcomed.

Golden Rum Cake
via Allrecipe and Jackie Smith

Ingredients
    For Cake
 -  about 1 cup chopped walnuts
  - 1 package of yellow cake mix
  - 1 3.4 oz package instant vanilla pudding mix (I used the no sugar one)
  - 4 eggs
  - 1/2 cup water
  - 1/2 cup oil (vegetable is what is listed, I used a Smart Balance which is a blend of canola, soy and olive)
  - 1/2 cup dark rum (Got a little captain in ya?)

   For Glaze
  - 1/2 cup butter
  - 1/4 cup water
  - 1 cup white sugar
  - 1/2 cup dark rum

Directions
 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour your Bundt pan - make sure it's thoroughly coated, I had problems with a part of mine sticking and breaking.
 2. Sprinkle the chopped walnuts over the bottom of the pan. You can use more/less walnuts depending on how much your pan can hold or how much you'd like.
 3. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup rum. Blend well.
 4. Pour the batter into your pan over the chopped nuts.
 5. Bake for 60 minutes (checking periodically) on center rack until a toothpick or knife stuck in comes out clean. It'll be a nice light golden brown.
 6. Let the cake sit in the pan for 10 minutes, then flip onto a serving plate. Here's where you'll find out if you greased the pan enough. Mine stuck and I had to use a knife to loosen the edges up - and I still had it fall apart a bit.
 7. While the cake is cooking in the pan or on the serving plate, make the glaze. In a sauce pan, combine the 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup water and 1 cup of sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, continue boiling it for 5 minutes while stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the 1/2 cup of rum.
 8. Brush glaze over the top and sides of the cake. Allow the cake to absorb the glaze so it gets moist and boozy. Continue glazing the cake until you use it all up or it's so glazey that it might fall apart. If any parts broke, use the glaze to help it stick together and get the glaze into the center of the cake
 9. Serve and Enjoy!

I made this cake in the afternoon and had it ready for late that night when my friend's came over. They had just been on a cruise to the Bahamas and were stopping by on their drive home. Even though they had rum cake in their bags, they wanted to try mine. In fact, they said it was better than the Bahamas' rum cake. This was probably one of the greatest compliments I've gotten.

So if you need a little boozy baking, or want to pretend you're in the Bahamas, try out this rum cake for a moist, sweet treat.

London: Full of Fondant Fancies

Little cakes are one of my favorite things in the world.

Not only are they delicious, but they are small, usually ornately decorated, and perfectly cute. If I could be a French lady and have little cakes given to me while I wear a powdered wig, my life would be pretty great. Which is why I can't get enough of Fondant Fancies, or, as they are now called, French Fancies.

Although the French Fancy name fits my ideal of wearing a white powdered wig, a hoop skirt dress, and daintily eating these small cakes, I do prefer the Fondant Fancy name. Not only does it explain the beautiful covering around the little cakes, but it bounces more across the tongue.
Either way, these are tasty treats.

My friend Nicole brought them in for us to try and has recently let me share in her Halloween stash of Fancies. The Halloween ones got me excited, since they were orange with brown stripes. Not only festive, but a bright orange flavor to the fondant wrapped around the fluffy white cake. It was almost like a orange creamcicle.

Yet the first time we tried them, I went for the Chocolate Fondant Fancy. Of course, my chocolate love melted at a single bite. The beauty of a Fondant Fancy is how soft and rich the cake is - moist, airy, and it has been packaged. I would have guessed it was freshly baked, but no Mr. Kipling has them packaged and sent around London for me to drool over. The fondant outside also gives a nice coating, similar to frosting, but not as sweet or thick. I think it might be this trick that keeps the cake so beautiful in it's fondant jacket, preserved from everything but my teeth.

Have I mentioned the little marshmallow ball on top? Oh yes! It's quite the surprise. If you look closely at each little square cake there is a small round bubble that peeks up at the top of the cake, also covered in fondant. That is a soft, fluffy marshmallow tucked in there to add a sort of treat and decoration to the cake. It has the same idea of the filling, where you get something bright and different toward the middle of the cake, but pops it on top.

Now the issue is, how can I not buy these each and every week? Nicole is rationing hers like we're in wartime, and I've resisted buying them so far, but if Sainsbury's keeps up their sale, you know what cakes I'll be sneaking during study time.

- Mollie

The Cookie's in the Cake

Sometimes the most miraculous of ideas come from the least likely places. Those who never are involved in a certain subject often have the most clear perspective and can come in fresh, with a new idea.

Now usually I wouldn't be saying this about baking, because there are a lot of factors involved in baking that can lead to mishaps such as burning and chemical mishaps. Yet my boyfriend's silly nature lead to a miracle in the baking world. As I discussed baking a chocolate fudge cake mix that I had in the pantry waiting for a slow day, he discussed buying cookies at the store. When I said I could make cake instead, or he could go buy cookies if he didn't want cake, he insisted that both happen. It didn't make sense to me. He said he would buy cookies and put them in the cake. In the cake? Yes, as in inside the cake.

You have had cake. You have had cookie cake. You have eaten cookies and cake probably in the same delicious day. Yet have you ever actually stuffed a chocolate cake with cookies? The idea of putting cookies inside seemed a little strange, but I suggested making a cookie dough. He didn't want actual cookie dough pieces though. He wanted fully baked cookies. We compared the chocolate chip cookie recipe and the cake box recipe. Both were at similar temperatures, but the cake usually baked around 25-30 minutes while the cookie took 9-11 minutes. The cookie would take longer though if it was inside the cake itself, because the chocolate goodness around it would reduce the amount of heat getting to the dough. Therefore, we decided to let the cake itself start cooking for 12 minutes and then stuff the still soft cake with the cookie dough.

Excited for our experiment, which we had no idea how it would work, my boyfriend began to mix the cake mix as I made cookie dough from scratch. He put the cake into the oven and set the timer. Then after the 12 minutes, it was time to stuff the cake. This was really messy, but allowed for a delicious cleaning up process. My boyfriend spooned small balls of cookie dough, which I then used the end of another spoon to press into the cake. The experiment looked like this (see right photo) before it was put back into the oven. The edges were more cooked than we expected, so it was harder to get the dough into the more cooked cake and we were left with some parts with more cake than cookie. Yet it still was stuffed with cookies and went back into the oven for the remaining 20-ish minutes.

Finally, the smell of chocolate floated through the kitchen and the buzzer rang. Our experiment was ready. Like a mad scientist I pulled it from the oven, thrilled to see my precious baby:

The cake was cooked and the cookies were too. It wasn't what we expected with the cookies peeking out of the top, but it ended up being absolutely wonderful. It would have been better if we hadn't left it originally in for 12 minutes, but rather 7 or 8 and then put in the cookies, but at least we knew the cookies wouldn't be burnt. They were soft next to the cake and when we put chocolate frosting on top it was the perfect dessert.

Can you see the delicious piece of cookie within the chocolate? It's there. It was soft with chocolate chips and that fresh cookie taste. The cookies never got stale either! The cake was so good that I rushed home many days to devour a large piece with a mug of milk.

Now you know, experiments can turn into beautifully delicious pieces of art. Do not be afraid, chefs. There will always be risks, but sometimes they lead to satisfying your sweet tooth in a way it's never known before.

- Mollie