Rum Bundt (Tortuga Rum Cake)

Rum Bundt | Patisserie Makes Perfect

Last Christmas (it’s hard to write that without singing aloud), I received a copy of The Bouchon Bakery Cookbook. It’s a huge book with pages and pages of recipes, tips and techniques to use in the kitchen.

The main reason I wanted the book is because my favourite blog Hint of Vanilla has referenced the book a lot in her recipes. Her blog is absolutely wonderful and the patisserie she creates is amazing. So I wondered if there were any secrets hidden in this book that might help me.

It’s a fantastic book, although I’ll be honest I’m used to working in grams and the focus in this book is mainly in ounces. Whilst both amounts are included, you need a set of digital scales because this cake has amounts like 468g and 562g, I didn’t want to risk rounding them up or down, so I just used them as instructed and the cake turned out perfectly.

Rum Bundt | Patisserie Makes Perfect

This is the first item I’ve made in my brand new AEG SteamBake oven and it helped to produce a perfect cake. The steam function has become available because of it’s success in professional kitchens and bakeries. AEG will now have SteamBake technology as standard in all of their new multi-function ovens from June 2016.

The SteamBake function couldn’t be simpler, you just add 100ml of water to the cavity in the bottom of your oven, set the oven to ‘True Fan Cooking’ press the ‘SteamBake’ button and select the desired temperature. The oven will beep when it has got up to temperature and you can begin cooking. It can be used for a whole of host of baked goods from bread, pastry and even Yorkshire pudding.

I was lucky enough to have a demonstration of the AEG SteamBake ovens at The Good Housekeeping Institute Cookery School in London. Richard Burr of The Great British Bake Off demonstrated how to use the ovens and cooked an array of tarts, breads and Yorkshire pudding canapes.

Richard Burr

This rum bundt cake or tortuga rum cake comes from the Caribbean and whilst delicious it has a lot of rum in it. The cake is baked with rum, soaked with rum after baking and then covered in a rum glaze. If you wait 24 hours to eat this cake, the ground almonds soak up all of that rum syrup and the cake becomes moist and doughnut like. It’s completely delicious.

I’m not entirely sure how authentic the recipe in The Bouchon Bakery Cookbook is, but it tastes amazing. You need to use dark rum for this and try not to scrimp on the cost. I used Havana Club 7 year old and you can really taste it in the finished cake.

Rum Bundt | Patisserie Makes Perfect

The cake also has a crunchy sugar crust because the bundt tin (or kugelhopf which I used) is coated in butter and granulated sugar before placing it in the fridge to harden up. This adds another texture to the cake along with the icing and rich centre.

This makes a really big cake, so  you’ll have lots to share round. I made the batter in my KitchenAid and it nearly filled it! So you will need a big bowl and a strong arm if you don’t use a food mixer for this, but it’s worth it.

As I know none of you will have a SteamBake oven, I have included the baking instructions for an oven without this technology in the recipe below.

Rum Bundt | Patisserie Makes Perfect

Rum Bundt | Patisserie Makes Perfect

Rum Bundt (Tortuga Cake)

Bouchon Bakery
You'll need a 25cm bundt tin to make this cake, I have this one: Kugelhopf Tin
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Cake
Servings 12

Ingredients
  

  • ***Rum Cake***
  • 468 g Unsalted Butter room temperature
  • 562 g Granulated Sugar
  • 468 g Ground Almonds
  • 150 g Plain Flour
  • 562 g Eggs Approx 10 eggs
  • 75 ml Dark Rum
  • ***Rum Syrup***
  • 50 ml Dark Rum
  • 50 g Granulated Sugar
  • 50 ml Water
  • ***Rum Icing***
  • 180 g Icing Sugar
  • 15 ml Dark Rum
  • 15 ml Water

Instructions
 

  • Preheat your oven to 160C Fan/180C/325F. Brush the bundt pan with butter and refrigerate to harden the butter. After about 15 mins, take the bundt pan from the fridge and place a large spoonful of granulated sugar in the pan. Rotate the pan until there is an even coverage of sugar, tip away any excess sugar.
  • Sieve the ground almonds and plain flour into a large bowl and mix to combine.
  • Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment until smooth.
  • Add the sugar and mix until fluffy, you may need to stop and scrape down the sides as needed.
  • Turn the mixer to a low speed and add a third of the eggs, mix until just combined, scrape down the bowl and add the remaining eggs.
  • The mixture will be really runny and fully mixed, be sure not to over mix the eggs. Add the flour a third at a time.
  • Scrape the bottom of the bowl to incorporate all of the dry ingredients, when fully mixed take 250g of the batter and stir in 75ml of the rum, mix until fully combined.
  • Add the batter and rum mix to the cake and stir well with a spatula, don't be alarmed if the finished mixture is not smooth.
  • Scrape the mixture into the prepared bundt tin, spreading the mixture round as evenly as possible. Tap the tin on the worktop to ensure it's distributed evenly and move the tin bake and forth to distribute the batter evenly.
  • Bake the cake for 1 hour, until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Set the pan on a cooling tray and leave for 10 minutes.
  • While the cake is baking, make the rum syrup by boiling the sugar and water together until all of the sugar has dissolved. Add 50ml of rum and leave to cool.
  • Turn the cake out onto the cake rack, placed over a baking tray or some greaseproof paper and leave to cool for 10 minutes.
  • Using a pastry brush, coat the cake evenly with the rum syrup and allow to cool completely.
  • To make the rum icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the water and dark rum, mix until the icing is smooth, place the bundt on a cake stand or plate and spoon or pour the glaze over the bundt.
  • The cake is better the next day when the ground almonds have had a chance to soak in the rum. In an airtight container this cake keeps well for 5 days.

Rum Bundt | Patisserie Makes Perfect

I’ll go into more detail about the AEG SteamBake oven on the blog and try to show you the difference by producing some bakes without steam and some with SteamBake so that we can all compare how much steam helps with your baking.

If you have any questions about the new oven, SteamBake technology or the delicious rum bundt, let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

Angela

12 Responses

  1. Cristina Dohmen

    Hello! I am looking forward to trying this recipe for Christmas this year. My husband, however, is allergic to nuts. Can I omit the almonds and get a similar result or is there something I should substitute it with? Many thanks. Cristina

    • patisseriemakesperfect

      Hi, I’m afraid there really isn’t anything you can use instead of ground almonds as they keep the cake moist and give it a special texture.

      I am sorry I couldn’t be of more help.

      Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

  2. Jodie Dodd

    Oh my, I love rum anything and this cake looks fantastic! I love a good bundt cake and they remind me so much of my father. They were definitely one of this favorite desserts and my mom used to make them all the time. My job was to butter and flour the pan, which was always such a pain! I love the idea of the sugar on top of the cake, I can almost taste the crunch!

    Your steambake oven is so interesting! Not sure if we have them here in the States. It’s a bit difficult for me to get the concept of using steam instead of a toasty hot oven. So cool that you attended the Good Housekeeping Cookery School and saw Richard! He was one of my favorite GBBO contestants! Love that he still has the pencil behind his ear! 🙂 xx

    • PatisserieMakesPerfect

      Professional kitchens will have steambake ovens, I’m not sure about domestic ovens.

      The rum in this is fantastic and it’s got a lot of rum in it, so don’t give it to the kids 🙂

      Bundts just look so much fun don’t they? Buttering and sugaring the pan is a pain too! It does give a nice crunch too. I’m glad I gave you a memory of your childhood. x

  3. Lucy Parissi

    Cake looks totally gorgeous and glad the steam over is working out well. I did go on a Miele steam over cooking demo and although I loved the food we made I wasn’t bowled over with the dessert. This looks perfect in both looks and texture though : )

    • PatisserieMakesPerfect

      The steam oven is great Lucy, I am really impressed by it. The Miele steam ovens I imagine would be great, their induction hobs are great.

      All of the baked goods I’ve tried have been great so far. Thanks for the kind words about the cake. x

  4. Hannah Hossack-Lodge

    Triple rum you say…? I’m in! It sounds really delicious, and the sugar crust is a brilliant idea. The Bouchon Bakery Cookbook is on my (very long) cookbook wishlist, if it is one that you would recommend then I might ask for it for my birthday 🙂 x

    • PatisserieMakesPerfect

      I saw you made a rum cake too Hannah – it looks great, triple rum really get’s a big tick in my book too! I do recommend the Bouchon Bakery Book, however if you don’t have the Edd Kimber book, Patisserie Made Simple, I really rate that one.

  5. nicole (thespicetrain.com)

    Baked with rum, soaked with rum and then covered in rum glaze? Brilliant, I say! I sure love the sound and look of this beautiful cake, the photo of the tall, slender single piece is gorgeous! I also loved to see Richard! I recognized him immediately from the show, how fun! 🙂

    P.S.: I have the Wham! song in my head now…

    • PatisserieMakesPerfect

      Thank you Nicole, the single slice was one of my favourite pictures too! I am pretty happy with the rum content of this cake as well.

      Richard was lovely, very personable. Sorry about Wham… 🙂

  6. Valerie ILoveCakes

    How do you say in English ? “Great minds think alike” is that correct ? I began to sing as soon as I started to read your post 😉 And I looooooove Megan’s blog Hint of vanilla, she’s so sweet and talented… With her and Bouchon bakery you just couldn’t go wrong, it looks delicious.

    • PatisserieMakesPerfect

      That is exactly correct Valerie 🙂 I’m glad I got you singing too! You’re right Megan’s blog is a favourite of mine (along with yours).

      There are lots of things in the Bouchon book I want to make – I also have a copy of Dominique Ansell’s book to work from too! I haven’t attempted anything yet.

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