Home-made Valentines ❤

February seems to be the month of homemade treats - rum cake, a Valentines chocolates, a filet feast and some vanilla choc chip cookies. mmm mmmm! Stefan spoiled me this Valentines, and finished the day off with a beautiful, steak and red wine dinner.

At the minute, I am amidst law exams and baking appears to be the way to get through them all - a little rum in ya cake never hurt! It was my first time making rum cake, and yes, I did cheat and use cake mix...but why not, it was SUPER easy! And, not to mention a real hit with my critical 'taste tester' housemates.

To make the rum cake, you will need the following:

(Click to buy online if needs be)

Cake mix (vanilla/choc swirl)

3 Eggs

Rum (15cl)

Chopped Nuts

2 tbs Sugar

knob of Butter

Circular cake tin 

All you need to do is get some Betty Crocker (or the like) cake mix. Traditionally, you're meant to use just plain, vanilla sponge but I went 'wild' with some chocolate swirls and I think it only adds to the flavour. As the pre-packaged mix is more or less ready to go, you just add eggs and water - and replace half the water with rum. A cheap rum will do fine. Grease the tin, and let it bake at 190C for about 25 mins or until cooked through. Whilst that cooks, whip up your rum syrup - heat butter, chopped nuts, sugar and rum in a saucepan and let it caramelise. 


Once the cake is cooked, you will feed this syrup over it, a bit at a time, until the cake is completely saturated and deliciously moist - you could do this continually for a few days if you're after a knock out rum taste! I'd recommend making small holes (with a toothpick/skewer) before pouring the rum syrup over the cake as this will ensure it gets fully absorbed and doesn't just run off the top. Some bakers also dust the rum cake with powdered sugar just before serving. Give it a go! 

If you're really rum cake crazy, check out the Tortuga Rum Cake Factory, which is based in Cayman and produces the mother of all rum cakes!