Annual Chocolate Rum Cake

About this time of the year and about 10 years ago, Cheryl left Halifax on a schooner with a xmas tree strapped to her deck headed for Bermuda.

balmy Halifax Harbour in December (photo by Cindy)

underway with an iced-up port-hole (thanks Cindy! for the photo)

Cheryl's schooner met with some rough weather on that voyage. By the time they arrived in Bermuda, the tree was well-salted and not too festive looking. So Cheryl went shopping. She brought back a Chocolate Rum Cake from the Bermuda Rum Cake Company, a bottle of Gosling's 151, and the Spirit of Bermuda: Cooking with Gosling's Black Seal Rum cookbook by Edward Bottone.  At least I think it was on that trip ... but it might have been a different time or a different schooner.

Anyway, the cake was fantastic and, fortuitously, the recipe was in the cookbook. Ever since then I've made my own Black Seal Rum Chocolate Black Cake each year at yuletide. And this year, tonight is the night; I'm home alone with Sammy and a full bottle of Gosling's Black Seal. The recipe:

Chocolate Rum Cake

1 cup dates, chopped

3/4 cup boiling water

2 tsp Gosling's Black Seal Rum

1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda

1/2 lb butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs (from happy chickens)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup Gosling's Black Seal Rum
confectioners sugar

Grease and flour a Bundt pan (or use a silicon pan).
Mix together the pecans and brown sugar and sprinkle into bottom of pan. Bring water to a boil. Plunge the dates into the boiling water; remove from the heat, and add the baking soda, 2 tsps of rum, and vanilla. Allow date mixture to cool while you cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time.

dry ingredients/wet ingredients

Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add this mixture and the date mixture alternately into the butter and sugar mixture until all is incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spoon batter into pan and bake in a 350-degree oven for 1 hour.

into the oven

(Tonight, while the cake was baking, my sea-daddy face-timed me on his new iPhone!

back then with Lamb's Navy

Then Annick phoned, and after that, Daniel phoned. My point is, you can get a lot accomplished / catch up with friends / line up a summer job / plan a party/ chat-up your sweetie-pie all while your cake is baking.)

Allow cake to cool for 10 minutes. Douse with rum while still in pan. Invert and cool for another 5 minutes before easing out of pan. When completely cool, douse again with rum. (Do you see a pattern forming?) Refrigerate overnight or longer. Then, guess what: douse with more rum before serving and dust lightly with confectioners sugar.

out of the oven

turned-out, duly doused, and put away for aging

the original cake box still serves as a "jewelry" box
(mostly toe and bellybutton rings)