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:
- Sift the dry ingredients in a large bowl
- Combine the wet ingredients in a blender,
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, mix
- Bake the cake in a bundt pan
- Cook the syrup
- Cool and soak the cake in the syrup
- 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!
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
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.
jess
Thursday 31st of August 2023
real quick question: why the firm command not to use vegan butter to grease the pan? it's been a while since i've been able to get shortening in any of the supermarkets i have access to, so block margarine is all i have to use to grease.
Bronwyn Fraser | Crumbs & Caramel
Monday 11th of September 2023
Hi Jess! Some vegan butters (especially the tub or whipped varieties) have a higher water content so they don't provide enough "grease" to ensure the cake will release properly from the pan. I tend to recommend using shortening as it is all fat, and I want readers to be successful without ripped/stuck cake. That said, many block margarines/vegan butters now have comparable fat contents to dairy butter and can likely be used if that's what you have on hand. Back when I developed this recipe, most vegan butter available in my area was the tub based variety which had too much water in it to be suitable for greasing. Hope this helps and that you enjoyed the cake! ~ Bronwyn
Lena
Wednesday 4th of January 2023
I made 2/3 of the recipe in a regular pyrex dish, using a slightly smaller amount of regular firm tofu instead of silken, and 3:1 starch and sugar in place of custard powder.
The cake came out lovely: tender yet robust, delicious (and I don’t even like rum a lot). Everyone liked it. Will make again. Excited to try some flavor variations, like replacing rum with brandy, adding orange zest, almond slices, etc.
Bronwyn Fraser | Crumbs & Caramel
Thursday 2nd of February 2023
Thanks for taking the time to review and comment, Lena! I'm so happy that you all enjoyed the cake and that the modifications were a success. Have fun with experimenting with those flavor variations, they all sound so good! ~ Bronwyn
Kelly
Saturday 23rd of April 2022
This cake is absolutely delicious! Thank you so much for creating the recipe, rum cakes are a nostalgic dessert that I’ve missed for many years vegan and I wasn’t able to figure out good substitutes for the cake I used to make. I’ve made this three times and each was a delight. Now I’m looking forward to experimenting with variations!
Kelly
Wednesday 11th of May 2022
@Bronwyn Fraser | Crumbs & Caramel, I made an orange variation, adding a couple tablespoons of orange zest and about 1/4 cup of orange juice as part of the milk amount to the cake, then substituted some orangecello for some rum in the glaze. Orange flavor was subtle and very good; would need to make some adjustments to make a stronger orange flavoring. Will continue to try variations, I’m loving this cake and it freezes so well, it’s nice to have some in the freezer to just pop out whenever we’d like it!
Bronwyn Fraser | Crumbs & Caramel
Tuesday 26th of April 2022
Thank you for taking the time to share, Kelly! I'm so happy this recipe has brought this cake back from the past for you! It's a special recipe in our family, too, and so glad we can continue to enjoy it animal-product free! Feel free to share your variations, always fun to hear reader twists!
Andrea
Sunday 5th of December 2021
It was a hit! So now I want to make it for Christmas but need to make it gluten free. Have you every tried it with GF flour? My understanding is equal amount of flour to regular flour.
Thanks so much! And thank you again for such a delicious recipe!!
Aarthi
Friday 26th of November 2021
Hi! I just wanted to let you know that I've made this recipe a dozen+ times, and it has been 100% ooohs and aaahhs! The base is perfect for making Vegan Indian desserts. The julab jamum and Rasamali cakes were so good! Thanks for makes my special events extra sweet!
Aarthi
Friday 22nd of April 2022
@Crumbs & Caramel, I subbed the rum with cardamom water, rose water and saffron. Then added toasted almonds to the bottom of the pans and put a light dusting of cardamom powder and dried rose petal. I also just made a mango/passionfruit, again just subbing the rum portion with the said purees! Bronwyn, this recipe has made me the dessert queen at family events! I love boasting that it has tofu to my unsuspecting guests!
Thanks again!
Crumbs & Caramel
Monday 29th of November 2021
Hi Aarthi! I'm so happy to hear this! I'm also really intrigued to use the base for Indian desserts - I used to LOVE julab jamum before I went vegan and now I'll have try this! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a nice review! ~ Bronwyn