Puerto Rican Chocolate Rum Cake and My First Giveaway!

Can you believe, it has been over a year since I started this blog and I have yet to do a giveaway?!

When I was asked if I would like to review and giveaway the new cookbook World of Cakes by non-other than Krystina Castella , you know her from the famous Booze Cakes cookbook, I was excited to accept!

My only problem was trying to decide which cake to make for y'all!

This book goes way beyond just recipes for yummy sounding cakes, Krystina shares all her knowledge of cakes from around the world and each cake recipe comes with a complete history. For those of us with a sweet tooth all year-around, she gives a list of every cake holiday throughout the year and from which country the cake or tradition originated.

In the spirit of the approaching summer and dreams of sipping a sweet rum punch on the beach, I decided to make a rum cake! And what is the only way to make a rum cake better?


Adding chocolate!

Puerto Rican Chocolate Rum Cake

Cake:
1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon Puerto Rican rum
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Rum Sauce:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup Puerto Rican rum

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a bundt cake pan or five individual bundt pans, set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter till creamy, then add sugar and beat till fluffy. Add in sweetened condensed milk and rum, mix till incorporated scraping sides and bottom when needed. Slowly add in flour mixture, just until blended. Add in the eggs, one at a time and mixing after each addition. Add in chocolate chunks and mix with a spatula. Pour cake batter into prepared pan/s and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour for large pan or 35 to 45 minutes for small pans. Cake is done when a toothpick entered in center of cake comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and begin to cool.

To prepare rum sauce, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, while stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove sugar water from stove and let cool for a few minutes. Add in rum and use immediately.


The only thing I changed from her recipe, is my secret trick to rum cakes: pouring the rum sauce over the top of the cake while it is still hot in the bundt pan. Let the rum sauce soak slowly into the cake and by the time the cake is cooled, all the rum sauce is gone! If you prefer to stick to the original recipe, once the cake has cooled remove from pan and pour the rum sauce over the cake, let it sit for at least 6 hours before you serve it.


This cake did not disappoint! It contains all the moistness that you would expect from a rum soaked cake, but also nice richness from the cocoa and added chocolate chunks.

So for those interested in getting your hands on a copy of Krystina's World of Cakes...

• leave a comment and don't forget to include your email!

To get receive additional entries you can do any of the following and leave a comment letting me know:

• follow the blog 
• follow me on twitter @squirrelbakes
• tweet about the giveaway

Deadline to enter is Monday, May 30th at 11:59pm CDT. A winner will be chosen at random and has 48 hours to respond with a US shipping address.

UPDATE: Congrats to Kelly @ KraftedbyKelly

Good Luck and Happy Baking!