Twelfth Night Rum Cake

Since we are enjoying and adjusting ;) to having a brand new baby in our home, I haven't been doing much baking this Christmas season.   I did manage to bake a simple cake for today, the 12th day of Christmas and the traditional feast of Epiphany.

For this cake I used the same great Pampered Chef Silicone Crown Cake Pan that I used earlier this year for our Garden of the Good Shepherd Fresh Orange Crown Cake, this time slightly modifying a recipe for a delicious Rum Cake, complete with three chocolate coins, one to represent each of the three gifts brought by the Magi to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.  I plan to give a small gift to each person that discovers a coin in their slice of cake.

Twelfth Night Rum Cake

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix (plus ingredients to make cake)
1 tbsp rum extract, divided
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup water
Nonstick cooking spray with flour
3 chocolate coins
3 small gifts to give to those that find the coins (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray inside of Silicone Crown Cake Pan with nonstick cooking spray with flour. Combine cake mix, water, eggs, oil and 2 tsp of the rum extract in large bowl; mix according to package directions. Pour batter into pan. Bake 40-50 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove cake pan from oven to cooking rack.

Meanwhile, for syrup, melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar and water. Simmer 1-2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat; stir in remaining 1 tsp rum extract.

Using dull end of a wooden skewer, pierce bottom of cake 50-60 times, inserting skewer halfway into cake.

Brush bottom of cake with 1/2 cup of the syrup and let stand 10 minutes to soak up syrup.

Using a butter knife, make three small incisions in the bottom of the cake to insert the three chocolate coins, one to represent each of the three gifts brought by the Magi to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

Invert cake onto serving platter. Lifting straight up, carefully lift cake pan off cake. Brush top of cake with remaining glaze.  Dust with powdered sugar.

I also happen to have a bag of Peppermint Dipped Snowflakes, which I had purchased with the intent of using for our Jesse Tea this year (which never did happen) that made perfect "Star" garnishes for our cake.

*If you don't happen to have the Silicone Crown Cake Pan made by Pampered Chef, you could bake this cake in any Bundt Pan.   Nordic Ware also has some great pans that would create beautiful crown cakes including their Bavarian Pan, Cathedral Pan, and Fleur De Lis Pan.  Or, if you just don't have time to bake, you could even pick up a store baked cake and just insert the chocolate coins into the bottom of the cake before serving!