It’s getting to be that time of the year again! My husband will be celebrating his birthday very soon and when I asked him if he would like a special dessert he said “not really”. Then I said I’m thinking about making that Bacardi Rum Cake for your birthday cake. “Oh well…that’s different and yes, please!”
I don’t use cake mixes!
But, if you are of a certain vintage, you just may remember this one recipe. It used to appear in Bacardi ads in magazines all the time. I had it the first time at a friends in the ‘70’s and could not stop eating it!
A number of years later I baked the cake again and took a couple of slices to a friend who owned a little fish shop/catering business up the street. He thought it was fabulous! Swiss trained chef, by the way! From that day until he closed the business a few years later, there was not only a standing order for a cake every week, that was sold by the slice, but he would get people calling in ordering whole cakes.
Then somehow or other, that cake became THE birthday cake for friends and family, served with whipped cream of course. From what I can remember, there never was much leftover!
To celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, we held an Italian style dinner party in the backyard. There were a number of our favourite things on the menu, like stuffed deep fried zucchini blossoms, roasted marinated red peppers, vegetarian lasagna bianco, something barbecued, a big salad and then dessert.
Our very good friends and neighbours are amazing cooks so besides the zucchini blossoms, they offered to make dessert, fantastic! There must have been some conversation over the years we have known each other, about the Bacardi cake. So, unbeknownst to us, they decided to make that cake….their oven was in use so they used another of our neighbours’ oven. I just happened to be outside in the backyard when the dessert was finished baking and was being taken to their place to cool. Something I could not put my finger on…smelled so familiar! When dessert time came I figured out why. Instead of a whole cake, they made them into mini-cakes about the size of Madelines. Aha…I knew I recognized that smell!
Everyone, except the bakers, had had the cake at our house before for one celebration or another and was delighted at the re-jigged cake. They went down a treat! And once again, there was either very little or nothing left! Click on the photo for an enlarged version.
