A Taste of Paradise
Living in South Florida, it is very easy to take our tropical paradise for granted. When northern friends are complaining about blizzard conditions, I feel a little bad that I am unhappy with my 60° weather.
The reality of living in South Florida is that the sun shines just about every day, there are ocean breezes to help through our hottest months and, did I mention, THE SUN SHINES JUST ABOUT EVERY DAY?
There are times that I forget how fortunate I am to have pina colada’s and rum drinks offered at restaurants where everyone is wearing cover-ups and sunscreen and a steel drum is being played in the background.
What does this have to do with Desserts Required? Great question. My friend Joanna Woehlke is getting married next month and last weekend was her bridal shower. Joanna started babysitting for me when Shoshana was a little girl. She is part of my family as a daughter, sister and friend. Joanna is also a lover of desserts and one of her girlfriends baked a delicious rum cake for the shower.
I had never made a rum cake, but with each bite I took, I knew this was going to become a project. I also decided that I wanted to incorporate the whole paradise theme into it. To accomplish this, I added pineapples to the cake.
Having never made one before and not sure how they are all supposed to be, I kind of guessed as I went along. I cooked the pineapples in sugar, cinnamon and rum until they were beautifully caramelized. I, also, decided to add toasted walnuts to the batter. Even though there is plenty of rum on and in the cake, it is not an overpowering taste. I will save that for a more traditional rum cake.
Once the cake came out of the oven I brushed another rum concoction over the top until it was practically drowning. The end result was a moist tropical cake filled with two of the best must-haves down here in paradise…pineapples and rum.
If this isn’t a Paradise Pound Cake, I don’t know what is!
| Paradise Pound Cake | Print |
- Cake:
- 2 cups chopped fresh pineapple
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup rum
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
- 2¾ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 14 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 2¼ cups sugar
- 5 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
- Glaze:
- ½ cup rum
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- For the cake:
- Combine pineapple, sugar, rum and ¼ teaspoon cinnamon in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until soft and caramelized. Set aside to cool completely.
- Preheat the oven to 325˚. Set aside a 14 cup bundt pan.
- Whisk flour, ½ teaspoon cinnamon and baking soda together in a small mixing bowl. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping bowl down as needed. Add eggs, one at a time, until combined.
- On low speed, mix in one-half of the dry ingredients then add the sour cream and vanilla. Add remaining dry ingredients, scraping the bowl down in between additions.
- Blend in cooled pineapple and chopped walnuts.
- Grease the bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake at 325˚ for 55-60 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes.
- For the glaze:
- While cake is cooling, prepare glaze. Combine rum, water, butter and sugar in small saucepan. Bring to boil and cook 3 minutes.
- Invert cake onto a cooling rack. Place cooling rack over sheets of waxed paper. Brush cake with glaze. Cool.
- Betsy's tidbits:
- Placing waxed paper underneath cooling rack insures an easy cleanup.
- The glaze is not thick. Therefore, ‘brushing’ glaze may be misleading. The brush is gently pushed onto the cake and the glaze is absorbed into the cake. Be sure to do this all over the outside of the cake.
