Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cake

Oh My God I LOVE this recipe. This one will defiantly make it into a regular rotation. Birthdays, pot lucks, no reason at all other than it's damn good. Again I made this one on my vacation. It is so good the first cake didn't last a day. There were two loafs made from the batter. I'm working on the second one now. Trying to see if I can manage to save a slice for The Brother and The Sister. The Boyfriend gets a slice tonight.


This one is very easy to make. I didn't use anything other than a hand whisk to mix it all. This one is like a pound cake very dense very yummy. And the smell while cooking is to die for. You don't have to use the rum in this recipe if you want to you can just have a yummy vanilla cake if you so desire or you can even use rum extract, not the same flavor exactly but still good.



Ingredients:
2 2/3 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 1/3 cup sugar
2 plump, moist vanilla beans, split lenghtwise, seeds scraped out and reserved, or 1 1/2 tbl pure vanilla extract
6 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 tbl dark rum
1 stick plus 7 tbl (15 tbl) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

for the syrup:
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark rum



sift the flour baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. Add the sugar and the pulp from the vanilla beans and mix well in a large bowl until the sugar is moist and imbued with the fragrance of vanilla. If you're using the vanilla extract (as I did) add it to the mixture after you add in the eggs.
With the sugar add in eggs and whisk into the sugar until thoroughly mixed, then add in the extract if using that, then the cream, followed by the rum. Once all are mixed well slowly add in the flour mixture in 3 or 4 parts. Make sure it's well mixed between each addition of the flour mixture. Then fold in the melted butter in 2 or 3 parts. The mixture will be smooth and thick.
Then divide the mixture into 2 9 inch loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 55 or 60 min. Again I sprayed the pans with pam didn't butter or powder the pans. If they start to brown too quickly cover them lightly with a foil tent.


While the cakes are in the oven make the syrup so that it can cool down while the cakes finish baking. In a sauce pan mix the water and the sugar over medium heat and bring to a boil. Once it starts to boil remove from the heat and mix in the rum. It will look pretty much like clear liquid, at least it did to me. Set aside and once the cakes are done let them cool for about 5-10 minutes. Then poke holes all over the top of the cake with a thin skewer, or do like I did and just make a few slices into the cake I went about half way down into the cake. Gently brush the syrup onto the top be sure to go slowly so that the cake can sop it up.

Wait if you can or eat it warm it is SO delicious. In fact...I'm gonna go have another small slice. Enjoy!