Coffee-flavored rum gives this gluten-free cake a boozy flavor in all the right ways. Rum is used throughout the recipe, from the cake batter to the glaze to the boozy buttercream frosting.
This is the Gluten-Free Coffee Rum Cake with Boozy Buttercream that I entered in the Blue Ribbon Baking Contest at the Minnesota State Fair that earned a blue ribbon!!
This rum cake is a twist on my boozy bundt cakes that everyone seems to love. I played with the recipe quite a bit so I could enter it in the Minnesota State Fair’s Blue Ribbon Baking Contest in the gluten-free category. And guess what?! I got a blue ribbon!
Normally I wouldn’t mess with a good thing—the good thing being my original boozy bundt which uses a cake mix and instant pudding as the foundation and is pert near foolproof. However, baking competitions are a very serious business with rules and one of the rules is no commercial mixes! Even the gluten-free rum bundt cake I make uses a pudding mix so I’m sure that would not fly with the blue ribbon judges.
I made this cake a few times with different gluten-free flours and like the Cup4Cup All-Purpose Flour best. I had read that one of the ingredients is milk powder and I think (?) maybe that helps the texture in place of the instant pudding….maybe? I am no expert, so who knows? But I do know this is a pretty good cake and is great if you have gluten-sensitive folks in your life.
One thing to note, the cake is so flavorful with the rum glaze that it probably doesn’t even need icing, but no judgement here! When making a two-layer cake, you really need something for a filling and to add a little pizzazz. I used about half of the booze-infused buttercream in this recipe—just enough for the filling and to ice the top. Then, I used a bench scraper along the sides to expose the cake layers and finished the cake by brushing a bit more of the rummy glaze on the sides because why not?! Also, booze makes everything better.
Coffee-flavored rum gives this gluten-free cake a boozy flavor in all the right ways. Rum is used throughout the recipe, from the cake batter to the glaze to the boozy buttercream frosting.
Ingredients
Cake
2 cups Cup4Cup Gluten-Free Multipurpose Flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted, softened butter
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup milk, (room temp)
4 large eggs, (room temp)
1/2 cup coffe-flavored rum, (I use Brinley Gold Shipwreck Rum)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Glaze
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup coffee-flavored rum
Boozy Buttercream
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
5 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons rum
Method
Cake
1)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2)
Put flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and oil in a mixing bowl and mix at medium speed until combined.
3)
Beat in milk, then eggs one at a time.
4)
Stir in rum and vanilla.
5)
Prepare two 8-inch pans: spray with cooking spray; lay down round parchment paper (or cut some parchment to fit) on the bottom of the pan.
6)
Pour batter into prepared pans evenly.
7)
Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until a cake taster comes out clean.
8)
Let cool while you make the glaze.
Glaze
1)
Combine butter, water and sugar in a saucepan.
2)
Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, until the glaze is thick and bubbly.
3)
Remove from heat and stir in rum.
4)
Poke holes in cake; lightly spoon or brush glaze over cake to let it soak in.*
5)
Refrigerate cake for a few hours or overnight.
Boozy Buttercream
1)
Cream butter; gradually add sugar and blend in rum.
2)
Ice cake! **
Notes
* I remove the cake from the pan once it has cooled, pour some glaze into the cake pan and then put the cake back in the pan and pour the remaining glaze all over it–including the sides.
**For the award-winning version, I only used about 3/4 of the buttercream and used a bench scraper on the sides for that “naked” cake look.
1 Comments
John Crawford
December 7, 2023 at 3:35 am
These sound amazing!!