Maylee at Beyond Gumbo 
“Pumpkin Rum Cake” is an elegant and delicious cake which brings out the flavor of the autumn season. I love baking cakes; and this is one of my best autumn desserts. The cake is moist and tender. It has just enough pumpkin puree and spices to flavor the cake but not overpower it. I added quite a bit of rum — this Bundt cake has a little kick. And it is surprisingly easy to make. Why spend hours in the kitchen if you can make something simplier? My “secret ingredient” is a box of Betty Crocker’s yellow cake mix. Yes, “box” cake mixes still exist. It just takes a couple of minutes to mix this cake up. Bake the cake in a striking fluted Bundt-type cake pan and this cake has “class.”
Alhough I added a glaze, the cake is just as tasty if you omit the glaze (and a step easier to make). The walnuts toast and add an aromatic flavor as the cake bakes and can serve as a pleasing topping to the cake if you choose to omit the glaze.
To achieve this effect, I poured chopped walnuts into the bottom of the well-oiled heavy, fluted Bundt pan before adding the batter. The walnuts toasted as the cake baked. When the cake was inverted, the walnuts came out on top making a simple, crunchy topping.
What is a typewriter?
My recipe inspiration came from an old, old recipe which I had filed away. While searching my recipe shelf for something else, these two recipes literally fell out of the cupboard. I had typed these recipes up years ago from a magazine — using a typewriter — and stored them away. Apparently, it was meant to be, as fall is the perfect time to feature cake recipes using pumpkin puree. With our current technology, we are so used to using computers, I wonder if typewriters still exist? I miss those days of getting a typed letter in the mail from my grandparents when I was in college. And so today, I still try to send a care package to the younger generation when they first attend college in the fall. I don’t use a typewriter; but it is the surprise and treat — like my grandparent’s letters — that is the meaning.
Recipe
This recipe is so very simple. I used Better Crocker’s Super Moist Yellow Cake mix. (The cake section shelves of Albertsons seemed to be very slim and some of my favorite cake mixes — Duncan Hines — were gone.)
Here are the other ingredients. I used canned pumpkin puree — as fresh, ripe pumpkins aren’t here yet. The canned pumpkin works just fine in this recipe. Pumpkin Pie Spice is a combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, mace and cloves. It helps tone down the pumpkin flavor. For rum, use whatever brand you have in your house. Rum took the place of some of the water in the box cake recipe. Eggs, oil and walnuts are the other ingredients.
To make the cake, oil the Bundt pan or fluted cake pan very thoroughly with oil so the cake doesn’t stick when you are trying to release it from the cake pan after baking. (This also helps the walnuts toast.) Chop the walnuts and place them in the bottom. Mix up the cake using an electric mixer — I alway use an electric mixer when making a cake from a boxed mix. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 25 – 30 minutes.
Let the cake cool on a wire rack. Using a table knife, release the cake from both the sides of the cake pan and bottom. Don’t forget to release the cake from the center ring. Invert onto a cake plate. If desired, drizzle a powdered sugar glaze over the cake.
It makes quite a stunning cake. I love my fluted Bundt cake pan — more about it at the end of this post.
The glaze is simple to make and it adds just a “pop” of sweetness which I like.
To make the glaze, mix powdered sugar, water and vanilla extract. Beat with a spoon until creamy. Thin if needed with only one spoon of water at a time. If too thick, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time.
Drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake. Over the next several hours, the glaze will harden and become more transparent.
Enjoy this wonderful autumn “Pumpkin Rum Cake.” I am so pleased to see that my recipe from years ago still makes a great cake. I am very proud of this cake.
About this Bundt cake pan
I love my fluted Bundt-type cake pan. It is a Nortic Ware Platinum Collection Heritage Bundt Pan. Of course, I found it on Amazon. It is made of durable cast aluminum. Quite important is that it should never be placed in the dishwasher. Don’t even try. Luckily, this fluted cake pan is easy to clean! I let the empty cake pan soak in water for only a few minutes and then used a mild dish dish soap to wash it. I used a nylon pastry brush to reach and clean the hard-to-reach edges in the cake pan. Let it dry completely before storing it.
I love any excuse to bake a cake — and this one literally fell into my lap! I hope you will enjoy this cake, too!
Pumpkin Rum Cake
Ingredients for cake:
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 (13.25 oz) box Better Crocker Super Moist Yellox Cake Mix
- 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup rum
- 1/3 cup oil plus extra oil to grease Bundt or fluted cake pan
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
Ingredients for powdered sugar glaze (optional):
- 1-1/3 cup powdered sugar, more in needed to thicken glaze
- 2 Tbsp water, more if needed to thin glaze
- 1 tsp vanilla extractMethod and Steps for strusel topping:
Method and Steps for cake:
- Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Generously oil Bundt cake pan or fluted cake pan.
- Sprinke chopped walnuts evently into bottom of cake pan. (The walnuts will be on the top of the cake when it is inverted onto cake plate after baking.)
- Add cake mix and ground cinnamon to large mixing bowl of electric mixer. Mix ground cinnamon into cake mix.
- Add water, rum, oil, eggs and pumpkin puree to the bowl. Beat on medium speed until well combined, scraping sides down with rubber spatula.
- Pour cake batter evenly into prepared cake pan.
- Bake on middle rack of oven for 25 to 30 minutes until top springs back when touched and/or toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove from oven, cool on wire rack until still slightly warm.
- Use a table knife to loosen edges of cake from cake pan and also bottom of cake. Invert onto a cake plate.
- If desired, make powdered sugar glaze: In a small bowl, add powdered sugar, water and vanilla extract. Using a spoon, beat until smooth. If too thin, add one tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time to thicken. If too thick, add one tsp water a a time to thin. Glaze should be thick but still run off edge of spoon.
- Drizzle glaze over cake.
Beautiful!!!
Thank you! It’s the time for pumpkins.
Let the pumpkin spice season commence! 😁 I love everything about this pretty cake, and I’d probably have to go rogue and put more rum into the icing, too.
About the bundt pan, do you have to do anything special to keep cakes from sticking? I’ve shied away from the fancy fluted ones out of fear that I’d just make a big mess.
Yes, this is a cake with a “kick” especially if you added Rum Icing. Delicious. As for getting a cake out of a bundt pan, good luck. I find that oiling it generously helps. Actually putting the walnuts in the bottom of the pan along with oil helped. Also, I let the cake cool, then take a table knife, even a fork, or anything that I can find which is curved and carefully loosen every bit and crany of the bundt pan, especially the bottom. Even so, one piece of this cake missed getting out — if you look closely on the first photo you can see it. So, I patched it with some icing.
I’m curious about the recipe card with the 2 pkg of pound cake mix. That has potential! Ever tried it?
Hello, wow, a 2 lb box of cake mix would be a huge box — I really think that means 2 boxes of cake mis — pound cake mix. Same difference. Yes, I looked at the recipe but went with the other recipe this year. But this pumpkin pound cake looks awesome. May need to try it for an event coming up. I’m impressed that you looked at the recipe card. It is from an old “Better Homes and Garden” magazine – back in the days when we all had typwriters. The recipe is still good. Thanks for visiting my blog! Happy Holidays.
Yes I said pkg not lbs. Anyway 2 pkg of poundcake mix does make a big cake. I made the recipe and it turned out well. I was lucky to find a pound cake mix made by White Lily which I used for the recipe. It comes with a glaze mix that you are supposed to mix water. I mixed mine with rum😊. I made 4 mini bundts and a loaf from it. If you were making a Bundt you would get a large one and maybe enough for a small loaf. I put pecans in the bottom after greasing with Bakers Joy. No problem with sticking. Not a ton of rum flavor so the glaze helped. Love your blog!
Wow, so glad to hear that you tried the recipe (even though you couldn’t see all of it) and that it came out well. It has been on my mind, too, and I plan to make the cake but probably won’t post it until next autumn. I love pound cakes and think that a pound cake with pumpkin puree, autumn spices and a rum glaze sounds delicious. In the mean time, thanks for visiting my blog!