Recipe: Real Food Rum Cake - Butter Believer (2024)

[This post is brought to you by my friend Julia of Coco’s Well. I am so excited to get to share this delicious recipe with you! And, for our gluten-free friends, please be sure to check out Julia’s gluten-free version of her real food rum cake. Enjoy!]

Every year since…well forever, my parents’ neighbor gives our family a holiday rum cake. Until two years ago I had never had one bite of said cake. This wasn’t by choice but because my older brother would eat the ENTIRE cake before I even knew of its existence!!!

In passing I mentioned this to our neighbor and the next year she brought us two cakes. One for my brother and one for the rest of us. Well, after my first bite I knew exactly why my brother had been hoarding this stuff! It was moist, rich and in a word- INCREDIBLE.

I started doing a little research on rum cake and you know what I discovered?? Virtually EVERY recipe calls for a box of cake mix and/or a box of instant vanilla pudding. NOT COOL.

So I set out to give holiday rum cake a “real food makeover” and I think it’s better than the original. My husband and I had trouble photographing the cake because we couldn’t stop eating it. YES…it’s that good.

NOTE: If you don’t eat gluten you can check out my grain-free rum cake recipe HERE.

*Beware- Rum is flammable. I might have started a little rum fire while perfecting this recipe. But don’t worry, I haven’t burned down my kitchen… at least not yet.

*The recipe has two parts, the cake and the glaze. I recommend making the glaze when your cake is almost done so that you can pour the glaze on the cake when it’s still hot. Yum!

Ingredients for cake:

• 2 sticks or 1 cup of butter at room temperature (preferably grass-fed)
• ½ cup coconut oil –> find the best quality coconut oil here
• 3 cups organic cane sugar (can substitute coconut sugar or sucanat)
• 5 pastured eggs
• 3 cups einkorn flour (can substitute sprouted flour) –> find it here
• ½ tsp sea salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup dark spiced rum (preferably organic)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Set the oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream the butter and the coconut oil in a stand mixer like this one
3. Slowly add the sugar with the mixer on low
4. Add each egg and let it mix in before adding the next one
5. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients
6. With the stand mixer on low- Start with the dry ingredients; in small amounts alternate between the milk/rum and the dry ingredients
7. Once all the milk, rum and flour are incorporated add the vanilla.
8. Add the batter to a well buttered and floured bundt cake pan
9. Bake for 1 hr – 1 hr 15 minutes. Check with a toothpick inserted into center of cake to confirm it’s cooked all the way through

Glaze ingredients:

• ¼ cup butter
• ¼ cup raw honey
• ½ cup dark spiced rum

Directions:

1. In a saucepan melt the butter and the honey together
2. On medium heat continue to stir together for 3 minutes
3. Turn the heat to low and and add the rum
4. Stir for a couple more minutes
5. With a skewer poke holes on the bottom of the cake and pour half the glaze over the holes
6. With a large plate, turn the cake over and pour the rest of the glaze over the top of cake
7. Allow to cool
8. ENJOY!

About the Author

Julia Lenser, founder ofCoco’s Well, is a wife and SAHM. Self-described as the messiest cook in world, she loves cooking nourishing food for her family. Julia loves to help people discover that there are refreshing healthy ways to love yourself and your children while laughing along the way.

(P.S. Don’t forget to check out Julia’s grain-free/gluten-free version of her rum cake right here! ~Emily)