Neighbor's Recipe: This cake is a special treat

Joy Scott is a busy woman; she's an active volunteer, she holds down a full-time job and she likes to bake.

How does she find the time to make delectable desserts like Bacardi Rum Cake?

She said she experiments and doesn't bake from scratch.

"With our busy lifestyles today, we don't have time to do a lot of (baking from scratch)," Joy said. "And I find that when I try to mix things together, either the baking soda or the baking power is expired. So when I can, I use a cake mix as the base, and that usually works for me because I often have a couple of boxes in the pantry."

Joy, who has lived in Yuba City with her husband, Michael, for the past 20 years, work for Tri-County Respite Care Service in Yuba City. "We provide respite for caregivers of people who are mentally or physically handicapped to give the caregivers a break.

"I love it. I'm very passionate about it. We have a lot of disabled individuals in our community. We really need to have system in place to take care of them and to enable them to stay in their homes with their families for as long as possible."

Joy is also a member of the Senior Nutrition Advisory Council, which is working to find a permanent solution to providing healthy meals to seniors in this area.

When she has the time, she bakes for Michael, a neighbor child or just because it's the right time of year.

"Today, I'm making a delicious Bacardi Rum Cake. It is absolutely one of my favorite cakes to bake, and it's easy and serves like a million bucks. I haven't found anyone who doesn't like it."

Joy's no stranger to rum cakes, but until she found this recipe, they usually weren't up to her standards. "I'd had rum cakes before, and they've been rather dry, so I was looking around for a different recipe for rum cake, and this one was right up my alley because it uses cake mix as a base."

The ingredients are all easy to find: cake mix, toasted pecans or walnuts, vanilla pudding, eggs, oil, milk and 1⁄2 cup of Bacardi dark rum — but Joy explained it's OK if it's 1⁄2 cup and a splash: "It makes it a little moister."

"The options are pecans or walnuts, but if you knew my background, you'd know that I'd choose pecans," Joy said with a smile.

She said the only part of the preparation that's any work at all is pouring the rum-sugar glaze over the cake.

Joy explained the first step is to preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Perhaps, if you're lucky, you might borrow a fancy cake pan from a neighbor.

"I was fortunate enough to borrow this fabulous cake pan that has little hearts on top of the cake pan. Those same very dear friends also loaned me another castle-shaped cake pan that I'm using for another cake."

"The great thing they told me was, when you're using these intricate pans, you should use the cooking spray that comes with flour. You just spray it on the pan, and the cake just magically comes out — even with all of those little designs in it."

Joy puts the chopped pecans in the bottom of the pan. "I don't always use the full cup the recipe calls for — I just kind of eyeball it." Next she combines all the cake ingredients and beats the batter at high speed for two minutes. "Then I pour it in the pan that I've already sprayed with the cooking spray with flour and bake it for an hour," she said.

While the cake is cooking, Joy makes the glaze.

"When I'm making the glaze, I melt the butter in the saucepan. I then stir in the water and the sugar, then boil it for about five minutes while stirring it constantly." Joy cautioned that's it's important to always stir the glaze, or it won't come out right.

"One thing I did I shouldn't have done was pour the rum into the glaze while it was still cooking. I should have waited until it was off the heat. Be careful when you put the rum in because it will cause a lot of steam, so you have to be careful so you don't burn yourself."

When the hour was up, Joy took the cake out and let it cool in the pan. She said that when it's cool, turn it out onto a cooling rack. If everything goes right — which it does for Joy — the cake slides out easily.

"The next step is, you take a fork and prick the top and the sides."

The final step is the sugar-rum glaze.

"What I do with the glaze after the cake is cool is the most labor-intensive," Joy explained. "It takes a while, because as you gently spoon the glaze over the cake, it drips down into the pan, and you have to keep putting the glaze on, over and over again, until all the glaze is on the cake. The more glaze you get on the cake, the more moist the cake is going to be.

"I've made this rum cake many times. We love it for dessert. I especially like making it in the fall and winter time; probably because it's not so hot outside, (so baking) doesn't heat up the entire house," Joy said. "It's also a good cake just to have with a cup of coffee or tea."

Another plus is that it stores so well, she said. "You can cut and freeze it indefinitely. It last forever. If you don't freeze it and just let it sit for a while, that's good too, because it just tastes better with age."

• Bacardi Rum Cake

Ingredients

Cake:

1 cup toasted pecans or walnuts, finely chopped

1 yellow cake mix

1 13⁄4 ounce (4-serving size) instant vanilla pudding mix

4 eggs

1⁄2 cup cold milk

1⁄2 cup vegetable oil

1⁄2 cup Bacardi dark rum

Glaze:

1 stick butter

1⁄4 cup water

1 cup sugar

1⁄2 cup Bacardi dark rum

Putting it together

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup cake pan. Sprinkle nuts in the bottom of pan. Combine all cake ingredients. Beat for two minutes on high with an electric mixer. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for one hour.

Cool cake in pan. Invert cake onto serving plate. Prick top with fork. Drizzle glaze over top of cake.

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil for five minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in rum. Be careful, the rum will cause steam — don't burn yourself.

Keep spooning and redrizzling glaze over cake until glaze sets on cake; the cake will be much moister this way.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter John Hollis at 741-2400 or jhollis@appeal-democrat.com.