Yo Ho-Ho Rum Cake

I've always been a big, big rum cake fan--golden, buttery, fluffy, irresistible stuff, with the additional benefit of a lovely Caribbean spirit soak!

But there can be so many pitfalls along the way:

• cake that's crumbly-dry, not moist and fluffy
• an overdose of rum, ruling out the possibility of eating your rum cake near an open flame
• even a moderate dose...of bad rum!
• too much sugar, turning a lovely treat into a cloying nightmare

So every time I step up to the rum cake plate...I am quivering with excitement, but apprehensive about the results.

A few months back, duly aquiver, I approached a rum cake that came to me from a caterer in Kansas City. He was so excited; bless his heart, for me to taste his jerky, his rubs, his barbecue sauces. I did, and they were all top-notch.

"Oh yeah," he added, "my mother-in-law Jude also makes a real good rum cake. I sent you one."

This story has nothing to do with the effect that low-key hype has on a taster's perceptions. I simply walked up to that "real good" cake and took a bite.

I simply lost my mind.

Jude's Rum Cake is without a doubt the greatest rum cake I have ever tasted, the golden mean that gets everything exactly right. It has all the virtues of home: she makes it from a yellow cake mix, eggs, butter, sugar, pecans, and a little bit of vegetable oil. She splurges on one ingredient only: Barbancourt rum from Haiti, one of the greatest rums made anywhere (I love it...and wrote about it long before I discovered Jude!)

The result makes me quiver...even shudder...and I'm not a huge cake fanatic! AND every other taster of this cake, cake fanatic or not, has gone into near-convulsions!

Jude—who is a local Kansas City home-cook that has become a legend for her cooking—is baking off a big batch just for me, just for this holiday season. You will not be able to find it anywhere else.....unless you beat a path to Jude's back door and beg.

I urge you...I implore you...I wish I could COMMAND you!...to get a hunk o' this fluff from heaven on your holiday table. Whether you love cakes, or butter, or rum, or rum cakes...or even dessert—is all immaterial.

TASTE THIS!

Quiveringly,
David