03/15/2026
This recipe is the crown jewel from my time spent baking. A “from-scratch” rum cake that’s entirely gluten, wheat, and wheat-byproduct free (*see branded celiac safe ingredients list).
It might seem like an involved process, but with only a few hours invested, you’ll have something to share that no one will believe you made yourself. One of the most delicious (and deceptively simple) cakes out there, and you can make one anytime!
Bake on!! 🙌🧡🥮
• Celiac Safe Rum Cake •
Recipe -
Fills Two Standard Sized Bundt Pans; easily halves or doubles.
Cake:
520 grams Cup-4-Cup Gluten Free Flour
600 grams Sugar
8 Large Organic Eggs
242 grams Unsalted Butter
200 grams Vegetable Oil
226 grams Organic Buttermilk
226 grams Bacardi Rum
280 grams Plain Greek Yogurt
6 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp maple extract
1/8 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp espresso powder
1/16th tsp cardamom
Crust:
113 grams Salted Butter
50-100 grams of King Arthur Baking Co. Almond Flour
Syrup:
226 grams Unsalted Butter
114 grams Filtered Water
226 grams Bacardi Rum
400 grams Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Method:
This is just how I do it, I’m not saying this is how you have to do it… chuck it all in a bowl, hit it with a mixer and hope for the best if you feel so inclined, but for the sake of investing time and energy, this way comes out with the best cake.
I’m writing this out for two cakes, because, why make one cake when you can make two cakes? Just make two cakes. (It’s an easy halving, or doubling, of the recipe, if you’d like to just do you, or become the person who has cake to share, respectively).
Grind 620 grams of sugar in a dedicated coffee grinder. Set aside 70 grams in a bowl to be added to flour in next step. Sift remaining 550 grams three or four time, go nuts.
Weigh out 520 grams of your favorite gluten free substitution flour or mock up recipe (I use Cup-4-Cup Gluten Free Multipurpose Flour; but, weigh by the gram, sift evenly, and try whichever you want to work with most).
Add salt, raising agents, and seasonings to taste or recipe (cinnamon, espresso powder, cardamom). Add set aside ground sugar. Sift, sift, sift. Like, really, sift again.
Weigh and bring to room temperature unsalted butter, buttermilk, and eggs. Bring out salted butter sticks to soften for tin prep.
Weigh out 280-300 grams of plain Greek yogurt and stir in extracts and ACV.
Grease Bundt Pans with Salted Butter, getting it into every groove and crevasse with a heavy hand and a repeated application. Here’s where we build our crust. Sift almond flour on top generously, then; tilt, rotate, and turn while tapping to evenly coat the tin… tap well over a bowl to dust out any clumps, this reclaimed almond flour makes great muffins: Recipe coming soon!)
When butter reaches 65°, cream with sugar, beat in eggs one at a time, stir in yogurt with extracts, gently whisk in oil, then buttermilk, then rum. Whisk briefly until the slightest resistance is felt in the lose batter but before the batter starts to slacken or separate, sift dry ingredients on top in a single addition and fold, fold, fold.
Only fold. Smooth and steady; don’t pay attention to the clumps, just pay attention to your technique; around the side, through the middle, turning the bowl with you opposite hand one way while your spatula goes the other. Up the middle and around, up the middle and around, no joke… you’ll want to go back to the whisk to get at the clumps, or be tempted to hit this with your mixer and save the time, but this is the way. Fold, fold, fold, and let the batter work its way through. After the large clumps have been dispersed, the little clumps will start to lessen while the consistency of the batter starts to firm and the spatula begins to leave streaks in the dough. Before the batter starts to stretch, look elasticity, or over thicken, but after those clumps have given way to a smooth batter (tiny bumps are fine, it’s much better under than over worked), pour into your prepared tins.
Smooth batter on top evenly, tap tins on counter lightly, set aside to rest for 35 minutes before baking.
Pre-heat oven to 325°.
After batter has rested (don’t skip this step!), once oven has reached temp, place cakes evenly spaced on the middle rack.
Bake at 325° for 80-85 minutes. (Check and/or rotate at 1hr:16-20 min, pull from oven when done ~1hr:25-30min).
Syrup gets started on stovetop with 20 minutes left on the bake.
Melt butter on a medium-high heat, stir in sugar and bring to simmer, add water and return to simmer, add rum and stir while syrup boils for 2-3 minutes, drop heat to medium-low and do not stir while simmering for 8-12 minutes (when the syrup starts to thicken and slightly darken, and the Rum has boiled off developing a sweet aroma in the steam without the harshness of alcohol. (You don’t want the syrup too thick, but you don’t want the rum too raw, there’s a sweet spot when the color deepens and the richness of flavor is apparent in the smell).
Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly while checking/rotating/removing cakes from oven.
When cakes are done they’ll have a nice dark-brown top (without any blackness or burnt edge on the sides), the sides will be pulling away from the tin slightly and the top will spring back if pressed. A toothpick inserted into the center of a cake should come out clean, the sound of simmering should be apparent, but subtle like a softly finished rice, not the roiling boil you’ll hear when you open the oven to rotate them an hour and twenty minutes into their hour and twenty eight minute bake (or less, or more, depending on your desired doneness). An internal temperature reading will be 210°.
Remove from oven and set on cooling rack for two-five minutes but no longer; before using a skewer to poke holes at varying depths evenly across the cake, pouring the rum syrup over slowly being sure to coat the edges and allowing to fully soak in before finishing the pour (applying evenly in two additions, waiting a few moments in between works well).
Cover and let cool completely, 60-90 minutes.
Seal in 2.5 gallon ziplock bag.
Let sit overnight. (No judgment on sleep schedules here, and no pressure for patience, you’ll dig in when you’re good and ready, buuuut, if you have it in you…. Wait 12 hours. The crust sets up and it’s a different cake that it would be otherwise. A better cake by far with *at least a six hour soak; but the longer the better).
To turn out simply apply cake board on top of Bundt pan, invert, and let gravity do the rest. If it doesn’t plop right down, warm your oven at it’s lowest setting (no higher than 170°, and we’re not going to need it to fully heat up), set Bundt tin in oven (as it was baked, bottom facing up), don’t let it get hot, just wait three or five minutes while it warms, then remove and invert. We don’t want to melt the butter in the crust again, just a little warming as needed until it drops right out.
Slice and serve! Pairs well with whipped cream, ganache, or ice cream (stay tuned for those recipes!)
Cake is shelf stable for 3 days, but will store in the refrigerator for up to 5; if consistently maintained at 41°, it should be consumed or frozen by no later than 7 days later.
Unused portions freeze well for up six months! To thaw simply bring to room temperature overnight, (or whenever your schedule allows planned patience), or, reheat in the oven on its lowest setting until desired temp, or, short bursts in the microwave on a defrost setting checking in between each interval.
THANK YOU for trying this bake!!! If you’ve invested the money in ingredients and the energy in the kitchen to make this recipe, I appreciate you so, so much for the trust. I hope it turned out even better than you had in mind.
If you’ve invested the time and energy even only *reading* this baking screed, thank you! The alchemy of emulsion and heat fascinates me, and I want to share that passion in safety from the inflammatory response that wheat evokes in my fellow Celiac Disease Survivors. Those of us with an autoimmune disease deserve good bakes, too, and having fun in the kitchen with food feeds the soul.
Branded Ingredients -
Cake:
Cup-4-Cup Gluten Free Flour:
cornstarch, white rice flour, brown rice flour, milk powder, tapioca flour, potato starch, xanthan gum
C&H Granulated Sugar:
100% pure cane sugar
Rumford Gluten Free Baking Powder:
cornstarch, sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate
Redmond Real Salt:
ancient sea salt
Land O’ Lakes Unsalted Butter:
sweet cream, natural flavoring* (*labeled gluten free)
Crisco Vegetable Oil:
soybean oil
Kalona Organic 2% Reduced Fat Cultured Buttermilk:
organic reduced fat milk, organic nonfat milk, celtic sea salt, live and active cultures (acidophilus, bifidus, l. lactis ssp, l. mesenteroides ssp.), vitamin A palmitate
Happy Valley Cage Free Organic Eggs:
organic, cage free eggs; yolks and whites
Bacardi Superior White Rum, Gluten Free, ABV: 40%
(Exact ingredients proprietary; directly confirmed with manufacturer to contain no wheat, gluten, or wheat byproduct before and after distillation)
McCormick Vanilla Extract:
vanilla bean extractives in water and alcohol
Great Value Organic Ground Cinnamon:
organic cinnamon
DeLallo Instant Espresso Powder:
100% pure coffee
Great Value Organic Ground Cardamom:
organic cardamom
Bragg Organic Raw Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar (with The Mother):
organic apple cider vinegar, water
McCormick Pure Almond Extract:
water, alcohol, oil of bitter almond
Chobani Low-fat Plain Greek Yogurt:
nonfat yogurt (cultured pasteurized nonfat milk), s. thermophilus, l. bulgaricus, l. acidophilus, bifidus, l. casei, l. rhamnosus)
King Arthur Baking Almond Flour:
blanched almonds
Syrup:
Land O’ Lakes Unsalted Butter:
sweet cream, natural flavoring* (*labeled gluten free)
Smart Water:
v***r distilled water, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, potassium bicarbonate
C&H Granulated Sugar:
100% pure cane sugar
Redmond Real Salt:
ancient sea salt
Bacardi Superior White RumGlutenFree, ABV: 40%
(Exact ingredients proprietary; directly confirmed with manufacturer to contain, or wheat byproduct before and after distillation)
McCormick Vanilla Extract:
vanilla bean extractives in water and alcohol
Great Value Organic Ground Cinnamon:
organic cinnamon
