New to Van Clarke? Subscribe to our newsletter for 15% off your first order. Start your haircare journey today.
“Steady as you go then” 🙈, I remarked to Michael. He’d just devoured a generous helping after suggesting I up the quantities of rum in the recipe. Turned out to be a third of a bottle and the rest of the cake disappeared in 30 minutes from the salon Deli.
This week we stopped off in the Caribbean for a decadent recipe generously laden with spiced rum. This indulgent bundt cake is one of several that derive from British interests in the West Indies and is perfect for a celebration or weekend feast.
Ingredients:
For the cake:
300g sugar
250g plain flour
250g diced canned pineapple – keep juice for the syrup & glaze
180g unsweetened canned coconut milk
120ml dark spiced rum
115g unsalted butter (room temp)
35g powdered milk
30g corn starch
30g unsweetened desiccated coconut
30g ground almonds
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp almond extract
¾ tsp salt
For the syrup:
120g dark spiced rum
115g unsalted butter (room temp)
100ml pineapple juice (from can)
100g sugar
¼ tsp salt
For the glaze:
160g icing sugar
30g pineapple juice (from can)
1 tsp dark spiced rum
Topping:
30g desiccated coconut
Method:
For the cake:
Preheat oven to 150c fan. Grease a 12 cup bundt pan and dust with the ground almonds.
In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then add in the flour, powdered milk, corn starch, desiccated coconut and baking flour. Beat this until you have a crumbly mixture.
In a separate bowl whisk together the coconut, milk, rum, pineapple, eggs, vanilla and almond extract. Add this to the flour mixture and beat again until all combined. Pour this into the prepared tin and bake for appx 55-60 mins.
The top will have gone golden and a skewer inserted will come out clean. Take out of the oven and allow to cool.
For the syrup:
While the cake is cooling prepare the syrup by mixing the rum, pineapple juice, butter, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and then let simmer for 10 mins. Once ready, use a thin skewer prick holes all over the cake and then slowly pour over a quarter of the syrup, allow it to soak in and then add the rest in stages.
Once all the syrup has been absorbed and the cake is cool, cover the pan with cling film and leave for appx 6 hours or overnight. To release the cake from the pan, run a knife around the edges of the cake, place your serving plate over the pan and tip over to remove.
For the glaze:
Mix the icing sugar with a little of the pineapple juice and rum. Keep adding the pineapple juice until you get the desired consistency, it should be thick but pourable. Pour over the cake and allow to drip down the sides.
For the topping:
Toast the coconut in a small pan until golden, then sprinkle over the cake.
Enjoy.
Gaby Van Clarke
None of us know what’s going to take us out. Life’s full of surprises. But we do know that the body starts to degenerate from about age 30 (more cells destroyed than created, barring excess weight gain) and also, crucially, that we can affect the speed of that ageing process.
Introduced by Portuguese merchants in the 16th century, and adapted over time to suit Japanese tastes, this light bouncy sponge is considered a traditional Japanese speciality. More delicate and airy than a regular sponge cake, castella ( カステラ, kasutera) is famous for a fine and moist crumb.
