Vegan Rum Cake – Just Like the 1970’s Classic!

This vegan rum cake is incredibly moist, rich, and soaked in a buttery rum sauce. This simple yet indulgent pound cake is the perfect dessert for any occasion from a weeknight dinner to a showstopper dessert during the holidays.

What is Rum Cake?

Rum cake is a dessert enjoyed in countries all over the world. For each unique name it has, there’s a variety of ways to prepare it.

This recipe is the vegan version of the Bacardi Rum Cake which gained its popularity during the late 70’s. If you’re not familiar with the original old school rum cake, think: a golden bundt cake made with boxed yellow cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil, water and rum to create the a dense and tender cake. It’s then brushed or soaked in a butter rum sauce. Being delightfully indulgent and super easy to prepare, it’s no wonder why it’s so loved!

How to Make Vegan Rum Cake from Scratch?

This homemade rumcake comes together in just a few steps:

1. Sift the dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Combine the wet ingredients in a blender,
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, mix
4. Bake the cake in a bundt pan
5. Cook the syrup
6. Cool and soak the cake in the syrup
7. Enjoy!

The Classic Rum Cake Goes Vegan

There are some vegan cake and pudding mixes available so veganizing this may have been simpler than the recipe testing I’ve done for this homemade rum cake. I’ve never really gravitated to cake mixes. I have nothing against them, I just find that they tend to be expensive and the dry ingredients for a cake are pretty easy to assemble at home.

That said, I did use custard powder in this vegan rum cake. I really like Bird’s Custard Powder which is naturally egg-free. It gives us that density and tender crumb we’re looking for in a rum cake. The custard powder also gives the cake a nice yellow hue and full flavor.

Some of the classic old school rum cakes include nuts, some of them don’t. I chose not to include them in this recipe but if you would like add nuts, sprinkle 1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans on the bottom of the prepared bundt pan before adding the batter.

Magic of Silken Tofu in Vegan Rum Cake

Silken tofu is magical in vegan pound cakes. Now before I lose you, you will not be able to taste tofu in this cake! Silken tofu is usually found room temperature in tetra-paks and are different than the tofus you’ll find in the cooler section at the grocery store. True to it’s name, it’s incredibly silky and very mild in flavor, if not verging on being flavorless. This unique type of tofu adds moisture as well as strengthens the body of the cake so it can take on the dreamy rum syrup. We’re after a tender crumb but not so delicate that it will become gluey and disintegrate under the syrup.

The silken tofu absolutely needs to be blended up to make sure you don’t have flecks of it in your cake. If you don’t have a large enough blender for all of the wet ingredients, you can use a bullet style smoothie blender and blend the tofu and milk together. Once the tofu is completely blended and no fine bits remain, then mix this with the rest of the wet ingredients in a large measuring cup or medium sized bowl.

Make Vegan Rum Cake Ahead of Time

This vegan rum cake actually gets better the longer it sits. For the best flavor, I like to make the rum cake and soak it with half of the sauce the day before I plan to serve it. Once it’s completely cool, wrap it or cover it. At serving time, drizzle each piece with a bit of the remaining sauce.

Love bundt cakes? Try out my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake , Vegan Hummingbird Cake with Vanilla Glaze, or Cranberry Chocoalte Fudge Bundt Cake with Candied Cranberries which is perfect for the holidays. This time year just isn’t complete without pumpkin, so check out this Pumpkin Spice Latte Sheet Cake with Butterscotch Sauce. It’s obviously not a bundt cake but it makes a great addition to the holidays if you’re looking for an easy vegan cake recipe.

If you make this Vegan Rum Cake, please give it a rating in the recipe card or let me know in the comments! I love connecting on Instagram where you can tag me in your creations using my recipes. You can also follow me on Pinterest and Facebook. Thank you for reading along!

Vegan Rum- Just Like to 1970’s Classic!

This vegan rum cake is incredibly moist, rich, and soaked in a buttery rum sauce. This simple yet indulgent pound cake is the perfect dessert for any occasion from a weeknight dinner to a showstopper dessert during the holidays.

4.75 from 63 votes

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Course: Cake, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Rum Cake from Scratch, vegan bundt cake, Vegan Golden Rum Cake, Vegan Holiday Dessert

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Cooling: 1 hour

Total Time: 2 hours 25 minutes

Servings: 16

Calories: 412kcal

Author: Bronwyn

Recipe Video

Ingredients

For the Rum Cake:

• 1 cup plant-based milk
• ½ cup dark rum*
• ⅔ cup extra-firm silken** tofu***
• ¾ cup neutral oil (eg avocado, canola, etc)
• 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 4 tbsp vegan custard powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

For the Rum Glaze:

• ½ cup vegan butter
• ¼ cup water
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup dark rum
• ¼ tsp salt

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

For the Rum Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Prepare a 12-cup bundt pan – wipe down with non-hydrogenated shortening. Do not use vegan butter or margarine. If using cooking spray, do this just before you add the batter so the spray doesn't drip down the pan.
• Combine the milk, rum, tofu, oil, vinegar, and vanilla in a blender – blend on high until completely smooth scraping down the sides as necessary.
• In a large bowl, sift the flour, sugar, custard powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Make a shallow well, and pour in the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix with a spoon, taking care not to over mix. Pour into the prepared bundt pan and bake in the center of the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with a few baked crumbs. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes then invert onto a cooling rack.

For the Rum Glaze:

• While the cake cools, prepare the rum glaze. In a small saucepan, combine the vegan butter, water, sugar and salt over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously for 5 minutes taking care not to let it boil over. Remove from heat and mix in the rum – be careful, the mixture will bubble vigorously.
• Wash and dry the bundt pan, place over the cooling cake and invert the cake back into the pan. Pour the half of the hot rum syrup all over the cake, down the sides and let soak for an hour, and finish cooling. If you pour the half of the sauce over it, you can save the rest to drizzle over the slices of cake at serving time. Otherwise, you can pour all of the rum glaze over the cake for soaking, both options are great. The cake is even better then next day.

Nutrition Info:

Calories: 412kcal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 326mg | Potassium: 135mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 35g | Vitamin A: 336IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 61mg | Iron: 1mg

Notes:

Storage instructions: Keep wrapped, or under a cake cover stored at room temperature for several days. To freeze, wrap up airtight for up to 1 month and defrost in the fridge before bringing to room temperature. 

*dark rum gives this cake the nicest flavor compared with light rum or spiced rum.

**silken tofu is different than the tofus in the cooler section at the store. Silken tofu is usually sold in tetra-paks, blends up like custard and is almost flavorless. Do not use other types of tofu because they have a very different texture which does not blend smoothly.

***if you can’t find silken tofu, may substitute with 1/2 cup applesauce

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