Spiced Rum Sweet Bread
Every evening as I make my cup of coffee, I have this craving for something sweet with it. A biscotti, a slice of cake… & often times I think of the white fruit cake with the colorful candied fruits in it that we would get from the local bakeries back at home. That was long long time back. But certain tastes & aroma stay with you irrespective of the years in between. When I read this recipe, I almost visualised the cake we would have, for the picture given for this was white and the recipe asked for red cherries.
This has been adapted from the recipe of Gillian Rauseo, of Houston Texas. She mentioned that this cake is from some island of the Caribbeans. That “..it is versatile in that it can be used as breakfast, a snack, or even dessert”. I loved the use of coconut and coconut milk in the bread (I’ve never used it before), & decided to give it a try. I have pretty much followed the original recipe, except I added the Spiced Rum, & incorporated the spices and the dry fruits & substituted the white sugar with brown. This cake did not look white, but it did have that similar flavor & aroma from so long ago.
Sending this to Vegetarian Thanksgiving – Recipe Carnival hosted by Mansi of Fun & Food Cafe.
& also to Event of the month: Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth hosted by Sudeshna of Here I Cook.
Ingredients:
- 3 Cups of All Purpose Flour
- 3 teaspoons of Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1/2 Teaspoon ground Cardamom
- 1 Stick of Butter, (about 8 tablespoons or 1/2 cup)
- 1/2 Coconut Milk
- 1 Cup Fresh Grated Coconut
- 1/2 Cup Mixed Zest of Orange & Lemon
- 1/2 Cup Chopped Walnuts/Almonds
- 1/2 Cup Dates
- 1/4 Cup Raisins
- 3 Tablespoon Spiced Rum ( I used Captain Morgan)
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla Essence
- 1 Teaspoon Orange extract
- 1 Egg Beaten
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar (Or 1 cup of White Sugar for a white cake)
Preparation:
Sift the flour, cardamom, cinnamom & baking soda to incorporate as much air as possible.
Squeeze out the grated coconut to make it dry & save the milk. Add the sugar to the coconut and mix with a wooded spoon. Add half of the coconut milk, & rum and mix.
Chop the butter in to small pieces and add it the coconut mix. Beat the egg, vanilla Essence & orange extract and add to this as well. Mix well.
Add flour mixture to the coconut mixture. Add rest of the coconut milk & mix with a wooden spoon to make a soft dough.
Grease & Flour the bread pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Add the zests, nuts, raisins & dates to dough mixture. Mix well but gently so as not to press the air incorporated to the flour when sifting. Pour mix in the pan.
Place on the top shelf of the oven and bake for an hour.
Move it to the bottom shelf of the oven and bake for another 20 minutes.
Do the toothpick/skewer test. If it comes out clean, remove from the oven for 2-3 minutes.
For the Glaze: Mix one tablespoon of sugar & one tablespoon of water in abowl & pour over the finished bread to give the bread a glaze.
Return to the oven for about 5 minutes.
Take it out and cool on a wire rack for an hour.
Serve it for breakfast, in the evening with coffee, or as a dessert topped with your favorite Ice Cream or Compote. I had it with Orange Sauce and tasted really good. But with all those fruits & nuts in it, it tastes amazing just by itself.
Note: If you want a white color for the bread, use white sugar instead of brown.
looks so tempting Soma.. very nice..sounds very different from the usual bread.
Nutty fruity bread..Just the way I like!
What an awesome recipe.U made it using coconut, must be tasting great.It looks tempting.
Hi guys, as Anu wrote yesterday I had been having some problem with this post. The comment & pings became disabled and more than that half of my post disappeared and i had to rewrite the lost part again!! hopefully it has been fixed.
Those of you who missed me, u can post now.
Well I was amongst the one who missed it !
What a nutritious bread !!
By the way, just curious – what role does rum play here?? flavor?
The plum cake sold during Christmas in India is my favorite! And that tutti frooti cake you talk about, I buy them from the Indian store here, they come arranged as individual rectangles, about 6 or so in a see through package. I made a similar cake last Christmas but it turned to rock in a few days :)) will use your recipe this time 🙂
Thanks all of u. I found the use of coconut very intriguing and am glad that i tried out.
Mohana: the spiced rum added a nice flavor.
Priya: Same here Priya, I crave the plum cake all year long and will not share that with anyone given one:). I get the fruit cake from desi stores too(they keep the hot bread ones). This recipe had the flavor of the plum cake becoz of Rum, and since I used the dry fruits it tasted a little bit like the plum cake but not quite. I don’t think plum cakes use coconut. I am looking for a good plum cake recipe esp during this time.
This looks tempting………it has turned out well….
Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe…
The only one cake I loved during my childhood is Plum cake. The cake looks fantastic, as Priya said the coconu milk sounds little different.
ditto… i am gonna say the same thing. looks very much like plum cake 🙂
Hi Soma,
Thanks for stopping by! Nice to find u here and btw lovely spiced rum cake. i love rum…lol.
Thanks folks… all this talk about plum cake is making me crave for one. I guess I will soon have to find a recipe to bake a real one, not one that just looks like it.
Well Soma ! bake a plum cake fast and do share the recipe at your earliest.
Your blog has, sort of, become my regular cook-book !
Coming from australia I am not sure what you class as a stick of butter, please give measurement. Thanks Julie
1 stick of butter is equivalent to about 8 tablespoons of butter or 1/2 a cup. I have updated the post. Thank you!
May I know what kind of FLOUR used in this recipe? Is it bread flour or all purpose flour…. Thanks.
It is all purpose flour. I have updated the post. Sorry for the confusion.