Banana Rum Cake – Recipe

If pirates ate cake, they would eat this cake.





I had some ageing bananas that were destined to be turned into banana bread, but I've also been wanting to try making a knock-off version of Tortuga rum cake (a yellow cake soaked with a buttery rum syrup). But I had to use up those bananas, and I already had loads in the freezer for smoothies.

So I decided to combine the two.

My banana rum cake is essentially a banana cake with a little rum baked into the batter and soaked with a buttery syrup. With significantly more rum.

Yes, this pretty much ALL goes into the cake.

The cake is soft and fluffy, and surprisingly the soaking syrup doesn't make it mushy at all.

See? Fluffy!
I also used up a packet of banana pudding Jello I found at an international food store to make it even richer. The recipe will probably work without it, but if you can't find banana pudding mix, vanilla will be fine.


I mixed some chopped pecans into the batter before baking- you can use any nuts you like, or omit altogether, or use raisins, too. Your choice. (It would be awesome to soak some raisins in even more rum overnight first!)




Ingredients for Cake:

-350g unsalted butter, softened
-100g caster sugar
-200g dark muscavado sugar
-5 eggs
-4 very ripe bananas, mashed
-4tbsp spiced rum (I used Sailor Jerry's)
-2tsp vanilla
-380g self-raising flour
-1 package instant vanilla or banana pudding (dry)
-Pinch of salt
-100g pecans, chopped (optional, but great for texture)

Ingredients for Soaking Syrup:

-60g unsalted butter
-200ml spiced rum
-100ml water
-100g caster sugar
-100g dark muscavado sugar
-1tsp vanilla
-Pinch of salt

Icing (optional):

-About 150g icing sugar (you may need more, see below)

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease and flour a 10" bundt tin

2) Make the cake first. Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, and then whisk in the eggs until well combined. Whisk in the bananas, rum and vanilla, followed by the flour and pudding powder. Finally, fold in the chopped pecans

3) Spoon the mixture evenly into the tin, tap a few times on the counter to knock out large air bubbles, and bake in the oven for about 80 minutes (yes), or until a skewer poked right in the centre of the cake comes out clean. You may have to tent the top of the cake with baking parchment or foil for the last 20 minutes or so to stop the top of the cake from burning

4) Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin

5) To make the syrup, put all the ingredients but only half of the rum into a saucepan, and heat on a medium heat until bubbling. Switch off the heat and add the remaining 100ml of rum

6) Brush half of the hot syrup over the cake in the pan. Now turn the cake out onto a plate and brush most of the remaining syrup over the top, leaving about 3tbsp in reserve to make the icing, and leave for about an hour to soak in completely and cool


7) Make a really thick, pipe-able icing by mixing your reserved rum syrup with the icing sugar (you'll need to eyeball this depending on how much liquid you have left)

8) Fill a piping bag (or plain old sandwich bag) with the rum icing, snip the corner off and have fun getting creative with your piping


9) Leave the icing to dry into a glossy, fondant-y covering before serving- or dig straight in!




And beware of fellow pirates out to steal your loot.

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