Malibu rum cake

I love coconut-flavoured cakes and bakes. There is something immensely satisfying in a big slice of moist sweet cake with a beautiful exotic aroma. I love the chewiness the dessicated coconut adds to baking. Alas, my older son is not very keen on the texture of shredded coconut, so I was looking for alternatives. I had a small bottle of Malibu rum, which I bought spontaneously, when it was on offer, a while ago. It was collecting dust, and I thought I could try to do a variation of our family favourite Advocaat cake. After all, slightly adapted, it worked with Limoncello, why not with Malibu?

Malibu rum cakeIngredients:
4 eggs
200g caster sugar
150ml Malibu rum
200g self-raising flour
60g cornflour
2tsp baking powder
25g dessicated coconut
5 Vanilla Extract Spice Drops
200g butter, melted

Beat the eggs with the sugar, add the rum, flour, cornflour, baking powder, dessicated coconut ad mix well. Melt the butter, add to the mix, and mix well again. I also used 5 drops of Vanilla Extract Spice Drops, but you can substitute it with the vanilla essence (1tsp).
Pour the cake batter in a bundt cake tin, and put the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden (check with the wooden skewer if it's ready).
Dust with the icing sugar, or make an icing with the icing sugar and rum.

I didn't add the rum to icing, because I didn't want it to taste boozy. When baked, the alcohol evaporates, leaving the lovely flavour, so you wouldn't taste any alcohol in the cake.
Well, let me tell you, it was a total success.

The cake is fluffy, moist and aromatic. I'm glad I felt like experimenting today.

In this recipe I used Vanilla Extract Spice Drops from Holy Lama, an innovative way of adding flavour to cooking. You need a few tiny drops of extract to enhance the cake. It gives subtlety and depth to any baking.