I love Haagen Daz’s Rum Raisin ice cream – the original!  Hitesh and I have been hooked on this ice cream ever since we first met almost thirty years ago at University of Texas in Austin. Our inexpensive indulgence on our starving student’s budget was a pint of rum raisin ice cream that we would share and finish off in one go. Today, we feel guilty having more than a scoop of ice cream, we are much older and our metabolism has slowed down 😞 yet we can’t resist this ice cream.  Craving rum raisin ice cream but not wanting to stop by the grocery store and get some, I thought I would try making a rum raisin flavored cake. Why not?  It has all the rum and raisin flavor of the original ice cream but in a cake form.  The cake turned out awesome! If you like rum raisin ice-cream you will love this rum raisin cake. Give it a try!

Rum Raisin Cake 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup softened butter, plus about 1 tsp softened butter for pan
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup rum
• 1/2 cup raisins such as currants, golden raisins, and orange raisins

Directions:

•  Soak the raisins in 1/4 cup rum for 30 minutes – 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 inch round cake pan or one large bundt cake pan. Butter the pans and line bottom with parchment paper. Butter the parchment paper also and flour inside, tapping excess out.
• In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

• In another bowl whip together softened butter, eggs, vanilla, sour cream and sugar until creamy.

• Combine the butter mixture with the flour mixture until well incorporated.

• Add the rum soaked raisins with the rum it was soaked in and mix into the batter.

• Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Once cake is done, let the cake cool for 15-20 minutes before taking it out of the pan.  Wait at least 1 hour or more before serving.
• Cook’s Notes:  To make the cake extra moist drizzle some simple syrup over the warm cake. For a simple syrup warm 1/4 cup sugar with 1/2 cup water on the stovetop until the sugar is dissolved.  Pour over warm cake.
• Garnish with fall-inspired autumnal maple leaves and serve with coffee or tea.

Are you wondering if the Japanese maple leaves on my cake are edible 🍁?

Edible Japanese Maple Leaves

You won’t believe this folks!  In Japan in autumn, Japanese maple leaves are eaten as a snack called momiji or momiji tempura. Momiji is made with Japanese maple leaves that are dried with salt and then battered and deep fried into a crunchy snack. This very unique snack originated in a village in Osaka where it is traditionally made every autumn.  Who knew!!  🍁🍁

Happy Fall Everyone!! 🍁🍂🍁