Rum and raisin roll cake

"Christmas is coming".

In Jamaica rum is as synonymous with Christmas as that baby in a manger. Its in so many desserts and drinks that are consumed in the season; sorrel, black cake, egg-nog, and rum soaked raisins. The latter is a long standing Jamaican tradition. Households are always stocked with sealed containers full of raisins, prunes and currants soaking in rum from the previous year. There are two types of rum cake. The white rum cake (basically vanilla cake soaked in rum) and black cake or fruit cake, which is made with the addition of the blended rum soaked fruits (and then soaked in rum).

Those who know me, know I'm really NOT a baker, I cant stand it, the measuring, precise temperatures, timing, so many things can go wrong, but for some reason I keep choosing baked dessert items to put on this blog. Is really not my fault, I was given three signs by the cake roll fairies that I could not ignore. First on Instagram someone asked if I had a recipe for a pumpkin roll cake. It got me thinking, then I was on food network website looking at cookies and a coconut roll cake popped up, but what really sealed the deal was seeing and tasting some guava duff for the first time. Two  Bahamian ladies stayed with us for a week,  they brought with them some guava duff and it looked exactly like a swiss roll cake.

So I decided what the heck, why not add another rum recipe to the list. This time I tried to capture a favorite Jamaican ice-cream flavor; rum and raisin. We already had the one year old soaked raisins, all I needed was some vanilla cake, powdered sugar and patience.
Check it out.

Ingredients (printable recipe)

Cake

1 stick unsalted butter (room temp)

1¼ cup sugar

2 eggs (room temp)

2 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup coconut milk

½ stick of vanilla bean

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

¼ cup coconut rum or regular white rum
1 cup powdered sugar

Filling

1 stick unsalted butter

½ cup rum soaked raisins

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 tbsp. milk

3½ cup powdered sugar

Instructions

• Cream the sugar and butter till whipped and smooth
• Beat in the eggs one at a time
• Sift, flour, salt, baking powder and soda together in a dish
• In another dish combine the milk and vanilla
• Add flour and milk mixture alternately in the blended ending with flour
• Take some wax or parchment paper well greased on both sides and line a baking sheet
• Pour the cake batter into the sheet and bake at 350 for 15 min or until the cake is cooked
• On a clean towel, sprinkle the powdered sugar over the entire surface and turn out the cake onto the towel
• Peel back the wax/parchment paper and brush on the coconut rum/ white rum
• Roll the cake up in the towel and place in the fridge for 1 hour max or allow to cool on a cooling rack
• For the filling. Cream the butter and powdered sugar blend together vanilla milk, 1/4 cup of raisins in a blender.
• Add this blended mixture to the whipper butter and sugar and whip till creamy
• Once cake is cooled run roll and spread the icing all over the center, sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup of raisins
• Roll the cake up by itself ( no towel) wrap in a foil or plastic wrap and place back in the fridge for 15 minutes, slice with a serrated knife and serve.

Greedy tips:  

Remember I am not a baker. I used my standard cake batter for this, however I think it might be a bit too heavy for this type of application. Even though my cake recipe is absolutely delicious, You need a sponge cake, so if you have a sponge cake recipe use that as the cake batter and then follow all the other instructions. I had a few cracks and I'm sure its because my cake was too heavy and I left in in the fridge way to long. 

Remember you don't have to roll this up, it can be a normal cake.  You can bake it in your standard greased and floured cake pan for 30-40 minutes till its cooked. Use the icing on the outsides as you typically would.  But if you want to roll it up, I'm thinking what ill do next time to lighten up the batter is separate the eggs, add the yolk in first with the butter and sugar as normal, and then whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold it in last, like what I do with my pancakes, maybe it will be lighter then....worth a try

• Leave in the fridge for an hour or less just till its cooled down. If you leave it to long its going to get firm in the rolled up shape and then crack when you un-roll it
• use lots of powdered sugar, when rolling up in the towel
• I highly recommend using coconut rum to soak the cake, I didn't use it here because I had none. yummy just the same with the white rum.

Xoxo Greedygirl