It’s Christmas week and for the first time ever we are “Home for Christmas” : as in… IN our home for the holiday, as opposed to being “Home for Christmas” in Rochester , NY where we both were born and raised. We always have considered ourselves fortunate to have two homes. And it has been a 40 year run visiting our East coast home at holiday time, stopped only by the pandemic. Traveling back via two planes and two airports didn’t seem “safe” this year for family there or us. So we are celebrating as we did at Thanksgiving- here at home.
Here or there though , the scents of Christmas follow us and are greatly influenced by childhood kitchen memories : the scent of vanilla in sugar cookies that my Aunt Marlene makes every year; the strong aroma of anise that my husband’s mom used in her cut out cookies; and the heavy aroma of rum. Rum Cake was always a tradition for holidays and birthdays in our household growing up. We would get them at a neighborhood bakery : rummy layers with chocolate chips laced in between and a sugary frosting covered with nuts thrown like confetti on top. I have yet to duplicate that recipe as hard as I have looked everywhere for something similar.
But the Pioneer Woman comes through with this rum soaked (literally ) bundt cake. It is not the sugary confection of my childhood but there is enough of a Rum hit to suffice. I sometimes have added a 1/2 c of coconut to this but this time baked it without. Any which way one does it, you HAVE to like rum . And I mean REALLY LIKE rum. There is a half a cup in the cake and then 3/4 c is used in a syrup which is poured over the cake after poking 100 holes in it. Yes 100 . So the rum is infused into every corner.
Cake or Cocktail ? You be the judge. Cheers!!
for the recipe :
https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a9594/christmas-rum-cake/
Fresh out of the oven today :
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