This caramel pecan rum cake is perfectly spiced with cinnamon and layered with silky cream cheese frosting. All drizzled over with caramel sauce and topped with crunchy pecans for ultimate holiday indulgence.

Rum cake is traditionally a Christmas cake that's baked in a bundt pan and drizzled with a rum butter glaze. This recipe is a little different in that it's put together in layers and topped with a frosting rather than a glaze. So, it's my twist on a traditional rum cake, which is usually made from a box mix.

We don't really do box cake mixes around here, preferring to bake our cakes from scratch.

So how do you make a rum cake?

Most cake recipes like this rum cake will use a very similar method. You will start by creaming the sugar and the butter together then add the eggs.
The dry ingredients will be mixed together- flour, baking powder/baking soda, salt
The wet ingredients will be mixed together- milk, vanilla, oil. Use homemade vanilla to make this cake really amazing!
Wet and dry ingredients will be added to the butter and egg mixture in alternating turns.

Can you get drunk from eating food with alcohol?

Well, maybe... but probably not. In restaurant kitchens, we get asked a lot by guests to leave out the alcohol or to substitute it with something else, like chicken broth. Almost every time we get asked it's either for religious or health reasons. Never because someone was concerned they would drink too much.

It seems to be common knowledge that the cooking process evaporates any alcohol and you're left with the flavor. But it turns out that's not entirely true. This article talks about an experiment where the alcohol level of the diner was measured after each dish containing alcohol went up.

But, I suggest you take this all with a very large grain of salt. The "experiment" was conducted in a very ad lib kind of way with less than definitive results. And you would need to eat A LOT of rum cake to get drunk. You would be full to burst before you felt a buzz!

6 Tips to bake a better rum cake (or any cake)

I learned a lot of things about cooking and baking during my 10 years in restaurant kitchens and these things may seem obvious, but it's always worth repeating.
Read the entire recipe once before starting to bake or cook. That way you can make sure you have all the ingredients on hand before you start.
Make sure your ingredients are all room temperature unless specified otherwise.
For measuring dry ingredients use the dip and scoop method. Dip your measuring cup in the sugar or flour, scoop out the ingredients and level off with a knife.
Measure all the ingredients and have them laid out before you start. This is called "mis-en-place" and it translates to "everything in place". It will help you bake and cook faster and with less stress.
Line or grease all tins before you start. When certain ingredients are mixed together like baking powder and liquids, the active ingredient starts acting right away and work best when put in the oven right away.

I hope that you and your guests love this recipe as much as we do. I make about 3 of them every Christmas and there are never any leftovers!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING AND COOKING ALONG WITH ME! IF YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE A QUESTION, I’D LOVE IT IF YOU LEFT A COMMENT AND A RATING. YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW ALONG ON PINTEREST, FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM TO SEE WHAT WE’RE EATING, PINNING AND A LITTLE BEHIND THE SCENES TOO! IF YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE BE SURE TO TAG ME ON INSTAGRAM! I LOVE SEEING WHAT YOU GUYS MAKE.