Bacardi Rum Cake Original Recipe
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This Bacardi rum cake recipe is the original 1970s recipe from Bacardi’s rum. Made with a box of yellow cake mix, it’s literally a piece of cake to make! Whether you bake it for a holiday event or just a tasty treat, it’s sure to get rave reviews.
The “secret” ingredient in the original Bacardi rum cake recipe
Years ago, I went to a potluck dinner and someone brought a delicious rum cake. A guest asked the baker for the recipe and she said, “It’s a secret recipe from my aunt, so I can’t share it.”
Everyone was baffled that she wouldn’t share the recipe, and I decided to try my hand at making a Bacardi rum cake from scratch.
I experimented with about three different recipes, but none of them were quite right. Then my mom said she remembered Bacardi publishing a rum cake recipe in the ’70s.
With a little research, we found the original recipe for Bacardi Rum Cake recipe. This “secret recipe” is made from a box of yellow cake mix. The reason she probably didn’t want to share the recipe is that it is so easy!
A few years later, The Cake Mix Doctor was published with a similar recipe. I’ve used that recipe here.
Ingredients rum cake from a mix
The original recipe calls for pecans, but I like a combination of walnuts and pecans.
For the cake:
- 2 Tablespoons avocado oil (or vegetable oil), for greasing your bundt pan
- 2 Tablespoons flour, for dusting the pan
- 1 cup pecans or walnuts, finely chopped and divided
- 1 box yellow cake mix, 18 1/2 oz package
- 3 3/4 ounce instant vanilla pudding
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup avocado oil or vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup dark rum
For the glaze:
- 4 ounces butter
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup dark rum
Yes, I know, this isn’t a very “healthy” cake, but I substitute avocado oil instead of vegetable oil.
I slightly changed this recipe by dividing the nuts and putting 1/2 in the batter and 1/2 in the pan. Usually, nuts tend to fall off the cake if all of them are on top. Plus, I like the look and taste of them when they’re mixed in with the cake.
How to make rum cake
Preheat oven to 325*F. Brush or wipe bundt pan with oil making sure to get into all the crevices so that the cake will come out easily. Dust with flour and remove excess. Sprinkle 1/2 cup nuts in the bottom of the pan and set aside.
Place the cake mix, pudding mix, remaining 1/2 cup nuts, rum, oil, water and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down sides. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more.
The batter should look thick and smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing out the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake the cake until it is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 50-55 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.
Poke holes in the bottom of the cake with a long wooden skewer. Drizzle some of the glaze over the bottom of the cake and let it set for a few minutes.
Run a long knife along the edges of the cake and invert on a serving plate.
Poke holes all over the top of the cake with a wooden skewer and pour the remaining glaze over the top of the cake
Do you have to make rum cake with cake mix?
Absolutely not. If you’d like to make it from scratch, here’s a link to a homemade yellow cake mix recipe.
What’s the best rum for rum cake?
I like to use Bacardi dark rum for the cake and the glaze, and you’ll need one cup.
Use a Bundt Pan To Make Rum Cake!
The original cake mix rum cake recipe is traditionally made in a bundt pan, but you could also use an angel food cake pan.
I’ve made it in really fancy bundt cake pans, but you have to make sure to really grease and flour every single crevice of the pan so it releases cleanly.
If you use a bundt pan like this one, be sure to adjust the baking time as it might cook quicker due to the design.
Bacardi rum cake FAQs
Does Bacardi rum cake need to be refrigerated?
No, rum cake does not need to be refrigerated. It can be stored at room temperature for 4-5 days. Be sure it’s tightly wrapped in plastic or in an air-tight container to maintain moistness.
It will stay fresh even longer if you refrigerate it. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months.
Does alcohol stay in rum cake?
Most of the rum will cook out of the cake, but the alcohol in the glaze does remain. It’s generally not enough to affect you – unless maybe if you eat the whole cake at once by yourself!
How long does rum cake last?
The cake will last for 4 days unrefrigerated, and up to a week if refrigerated.
I think this easy recipe for rum cake tastes better the second day as the rum glaze has a chance to really soak into the cake. Sometimes, I’ll also sprinkle a little extra rum on a slice just before serving.
Looking for more cake recipes?
If you like nuts, you’ll love this Coffee and Walnut Cake from Christina’s Cucina. Or this Chocolate Cake with Pecan Frosting or Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake.
Bacardi Rum Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 Tablespoons Vegetable oil for greasing your bundt pan
- 2 Tablespoons flour for dusting the pan
- 1 cup pecans or walnuts finely chopped and divided
- 1 box yellow cake mix 18 1/2 oz package
- 3 3/4 ounce instant vanilla pudding
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil or avocado oil
- 1/2 cup dark rum
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325*F. Brush or wipe bundt pan with oil making sure to get into all the crevices so that the cake will come out easily. Dust with flour and remove excess.
- Sprinkle 1/2 cup nuts in the bottom of the pan and set aside.
- Place the cake mix, pudding mix, remaining 1/2 cup nuts, rum, oil, water and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down sides. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more. The batter should look thick and smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing out the top with a rubber spatula.
- Bake the cake until it is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 50-55 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Poke holes in the bottom of the cake with a long wooden skewer. Drizzle some of the glaze over the bottom of the cake and let it set for a few minutes. Run a long knife along the edges of the cake and invert on a serving plate. Poke holes all over the top of the cake with a wooden skewer and pour the remaining glaze over the top of the cake
Glaze
- Place butter in a small saucepan and melt it over low heat, then add the water and sugar, stirring.
- Increase the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly and let the glaze simmer until thickened, about 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the rum.
- Spoon the glaze over the warm cake, allowing it to seep into the holes and drizzle down the sides and into the center of the cake. Allow cake to cool completely before slicing.
- Store the cake covered in foil or plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Bacardi Rum Cake
(This is the original recipe transcribed from my Dad’s collection of “Absolutely Favorite Recipes”. Literally it is the cut out page of paper photocopied because he was not about the hand over the original.)
CAKE: 1 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts
1 18 1/2 oz. package yellow cake mix 1 3 and 3/4 oz. Jello-O Vanilla Instant Pudding and Pie Filling 4 eggs 1/2 cup cold water 1/2 cup Wesson vegetable oil
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum (80 proof)
*If Using yellow cake mix with pudding already in the mix: omit instant pudding, use 3 eggs instead of 4, 1/3 cup oil instead of 1/2.
GLAZE: 1/4 lb. butter 1/4 cup of water 1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum (80 proof)
Cake: Preheat your oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube or 12 cup Bundt pan, sprinkling the nuts over the bottom of the pan. Mix all the cake ingredients together until you have a smooth consistent batter, then pour into the tin over the nuts. Bake for 1 hour. Cool and invert onto a serving plate – pricking the top and sides. Make the Glaze. Spoon and brush glaze evenly over top and sides. Allow cake to absorb glaze. Repeat till glaze is used up.
Glaze: Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the water and sugar. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat. Stir in the rum.
Optional: Decorate with a border of sugar frosting or whipped cream.
( I wanted to email directly but wasn’t able to. I found your recipe and wanted to share this with you since it also answers so many of the questions.
thank you so much! I’m going to check this against the one i have.
thank you so much! I’ve updated it. It was pretty close though. I appreciate it.
It says you have the original but you’re giving us the recipe for the cake Doctor. We can easily get hers, already. Do you have the original?
The Cake Doctor’s is pretty close, BUT another reader found the original and I’ve updated it…almost identical.
This is such a great recipe, always a hit when I make it. I leave out the nuts.
great tip if you’re allergic to nuts!
The many recipes online use the CURRENT cake mix and instant pudding packages. The true recipe –as you printed. thank you! — is an 18.5 oz. cake mix; now the packages are 15.25 oz. The Jell-O instant vanilla pudding mix used to be 3.75 oz.; it’s now a 3.4 oz. package. Corporate greed run amok.
Re: the rum cake, my late brother and I were going on a 12-day fishing trip down the length of the Baja California peninsula, and I’d been baking the rum cake for a few years, so I made one to see just how long it would last in the dry desert heat. On Day 10, I split the remaining chunk between us, and it was just as moist as on Day One! The REAL difficulty was in waiting so long to finish it off!
I have only ever used pecans, but then again, I’m a snob and long-time cook and a former caterer. I raised my kids by myself when they were 5 and 3, and I had become disabled and unable to work, so I made dinners from cuisines around the world so they wouldn’t notice how destitute we were. And yes, at the end of the month, there were times when I said “I had a late lunch” or “my back pain killed my appetite (true enough!)” because there wasn’t enough food for all of us. I even was at a total loss until I remember the kid’s story about “Stone Soup,” so I read them the book and we went out on the dirt access road in the forest to find their own rocks to give the soup “the best flavor.” In went leftover meats or gravies; any frozen or leftover vegetables, and beef or chicken stock, whatever we had. They loved it so much they would ask for it every couple of weeks!
Both kids are in their early 30s, and my daughter has given me the best grandsons ever. Both of my kids are terrific cooks, and my daughter was a vegetarian until health concerns forced her to eat meats again, and she did terrific dinners. My mom bought me a high-carbon steel chef’s knife from Solingen, Germany in 1973, and I’ve told my grandsons whoever is the better cook inherits the knife. I went over for tacos last night, and my daughter had my older grandson, who’s 8, frying the corn tortillas a few seconds on each side. He did two dozen of them, each one cooked perfectly. So what did he say to me? Not “Hi, Papa!” but “I’m GOING to win the chef’s knife!”
Wow! Great stories Pete! Sounds like you’re starting your grandkids on the right path! Good job!
Has anyone made this recipe and used the small bundt cake pans? If so, how many smaller cakes does the recipe make? I love this cake and would like to share it with friends as individual cakes not a piece of cut cake. Thanks for any tips! Mary
This is a great idea! I use a standard sized bundt pan. I googled and found this answer at Food52:
“Divide volume (in liquid cups) of the recipe for 1 bundt cake by the volume of the mini loaf pan to get your yield as # of mini loaves.
E.g., 12-cup bundt pan divided by 2-cup mini loaf yields 6 mini loaves.
This is rough measure, remembering not to fill pans 100% and allow for expansion during baking
If you don’t know your pan sizes by cups, measure them with using water.”
Would you change the temperature if using the mini pans?
I reduce the baking time by about 1/3 depending on the size of the mini bundt pans.
I made this with both a regular and a gluten free box mix. I used both pecans and walnuts. I mixed the cake mix with the pudding before adding the wet ingredients. I used melted butter instead of vegetable oil. The guests RAVED over both versions. Take your time spooning the glaze, give the cake time to absorb. And DO use a skewer, not toothpicks to poke the holes. I havent used a box mix in well over a decade, but this recipe is amazing. Thank you so much!
Thank you for your detailed repsonse! I appreciate it and am glad you enjoyed it!
This is NOT the original Bacardi Rum Cake recipe. I have that recipe in a Bacardi recipe booklet I’ve had since the 1980’s. This author indicates she has substituted avocado oil for the vegetable oil and put half of the nuts from the topping into the cake, itself. Those changes are fine. The change that is not mentioned is the reduction of sugar in the glaze from 1 cup to 1/2 cup. Many recipes have more sugar than necessary, and I often reduce it, too. So I tried this recipe with the reduced sugar in the glaze. Unfortunately, it was not as good. it changed the consistency of the glaze, and also the quantity and thereby the extent to which it penetrates the cake. It reduced a sassy run-infused cake to a yellow cake with a little rum around the edges. Use the whole cup of sugar if you want a stunning special occasion cake.
Thank you for commenting. I think I noted in my post that after searching for this recipe I found a very similar one via the Cake Mix Doctor. The original recipe also calls for a larger cake mix size. Unfortunately cake mixes have shrunk a few ounces in size since the 1970s, so there isn’t much I can do about that. I use the exact same amount of nuts, I just distribute half of them into the batter because I found that too many would be left in the bundt pan. Not sure how that change affects the taste?
Regarding the vegetable oil; I leave it as an option since so many people are concerned about consuming seed oils these days. You of course were free to use vegetable oil! Lastly, regarding the sugar, I do try and reduce sugar whenever I can, but you could certainly double the amount. The rum stay the same so also not sure how that affected the taste. Was it really THAT bad that you had to leave only 2 stars?
I thought I was pretty transparent in my post. I’ll be making it for new years and will try it again with double the sugar to see if anyone notices!
Happy holidays,
Cynthia