Butterscotch Rum Cake

For some reason, lately, I have been craving butterscotch. I love those little butterscotch chips from the baking aisle, but I never buy them because I’ll eat a whole bag before I ever bake anything with them. When I do pick some up, though, my favorite treat to make with them is butterscotch rum cake.

I developed this recipe myself just to have something new to use butterscotch chips in (besides blondies and other bar type desserts). There are lots of butterscotch cake recipes online, but they all seem to have a pre-made cake mix as their base. Homie don’t play that. I prefer to start from scratch (with the exception of pastry dough…but you already knew that).

I played and tweaked, experimented and changed things around until I had a recipe I loved, and now I hope you love it too! It’s easy, and relatively fast. You could certainly make this in the early afternoon for an evening dinner party or get together with time left over to get ready. Plus, they are incredible with the optional addition of a little chocolate! I make this recipe as a bundt cake, but you could make a layer cake, if you don’t have a bundt pan.

All you need to make these treats is unsalted butter, salt, baking powder, eggs, milk, cake flour, sugar, and rum. Pay no attention to that sour cream in the middle of the photo…in fact, pretend that it’s brown sugar! 😉

The magic ingredient for today’s recipe are these butterscotch chips. If you choose to make mini cakes, you should buy at least two bags, but if you make a single, large cake, then you can get by with one.

To get started, melt one cup of butterscotch chips in a small, microwave safe bowl. Set it aside and allow it to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and set it aside. In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Scrape the bowl again, and stir in the melted chips. Sprinkle half of the flour on top of the mixture and mix until just combined. Add the milk and stir well. Sprinkle the rest of the flour mixture on top and mix until just combined. Finally, add the rum and mix until everything is well combined. Scrape the bowl and give the batter a final stir to ensure everything is combined.

Spray your cake pan with nonstick baking spray that has flour in it. For mini bundt cakes, fill each one with two tablespoons of batter, or two scoops using a small spring-loaded scoop. For a full sized cake, pour all of the batter into a large bundt pan. Bake mini cakes at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For a full sized cake, bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted int he center comes out clean.

Allow your cake(s) to cool completely on a wire cooling rack. Thanks to the baking spray, your cake should come right out of the pan. This was the first time I had ever used the baking spray and I was so thrilled with the results. I have always preferred to grease and flour my pans myself, and I didn’t believe that the spray would work as well. I feel like it’s more thorough to do it myself, but this time I absolutely was not in the mood to grease and flour each and every one of those little bundt molds. Fortunately, I didn’t have to…and I never will.

These look a little forlorn, don’t they? Not to worry! I have a couple of extremely easy, extremely yummy glazes to drizzle on top of them!!

The first is simply more butterscotch chips and a little milk heated together in the microwave. The second is exactly the same, but with semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of butterscotch. I like to make both and mix things up: a few butterscotch, a few chocolate, a few with both! Simply drizzle the glaze(s) on top as desired.

You could also sprinkle whole, or chopped, chips on these for a little extra garnish, if you wanted. Or even some chopped pecans or walnuts, but I like them with just the glazes.

I needed to taste test the flavors to make sure everything was as it should be. No, really… I did…

I like all three flavors, but I have to admit that the two with butterscotch are the best. The plain chocolate glaze is very good, but not quite as awesome as the ones with the butterscotch glaze.

These are one of the easiest decadent desserts I know of. They’re pretty and delicious, but still fast and easy. Mommy likey. And I think you will too. Enjoy!

Butterscotch Rum Bundt Cake with Butterscotch and Chocolate Glazes
Makes 24 mini cakes (or 1 full sized Bundt cake)

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:
2 1/2 cups plain cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 cup butterscotch chips, melted and cooled
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup rum

1 to 2 bags butterscotch chips

FOR THE BUTTERSCOTCH GANACHE:
4.5 ounces butterscotch chips
scant 1/2 cup cream

FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE:
4.5 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
scant 1/2 cup cream

To make the cake(s): Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray pan(s) with nonstick baking spray containing flour.

In a small, microwave safe bowl, melt one cup of butterscotch chips. Set it aside and allow it to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and set it aside.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Scrape the bowl again, and stir in the melted chips. Sprinkle half of the flour on top of the mixture and mix until just combined. Add the milk and stir well. Sprinkle the rest of the flour mixture on top and mix until just combined. Finally, add the rum and mix until everything is well combined. Scrape the bowl and give the batter a final stir to ensure everything is combined.

For mini bundt cakes, fill the prepared pan with two tablespoons of batter per cake. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. For a full sized cake, pour all of the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted int he center comes out clean.

Transfer cake(s) to a wire cooling rack and cool completely before adding ganache.

To make the butterscotch ganache: Place the chips in a medium bowl.

Bring the heavy cream to a gentle boil. Pour the hot cream over the butterscotch, and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Whisk the cream and (now melted) butterscotch together into smooth and glossy. Allow to cool completely before drizzling over the cakes.

To make the chocolate ganache: Place the chocolate in a medium bowl.

Bring the heavy cream to a gentle boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Whisk the cream and (now melted) chocolate together into smooth and glossy. Allow to cool completely before drizzling over the cakes.

Be aware that the glaze recipes will only cover about 1/2 of the mini cakes each, but it’s very simple to make more. If you want all of the cakes to have the same ganache, simply double whichever ganache recipe you prefer.

Recipe by Darla