It seems that every Saturday, I develop a greater desire to bake than any other day. This is probably due to the fact that I’ve spent the greater part of the day relaxing, doing nothing and de-stressing. I got around to looking at recipes last night to see what kind of concoction I will make this time around and it occurred to me that I had been thinking of rum cake all week long. I set off to Epicurious to find a recipe, however, my search didn’t yield and desirable results, so I headed off to the next best thing, Google.

I searched for “rum cake” and amidst all the results, I found one from Recipe Zaar entitled “Almost Tortuga Rum Cake.” Oh how the memories came flowing back to me. The first time I ever lay eyes on Tortuga Rum Cake, a food fit for the Gods, was when Nat returned from The Cayman Islands, cake in hand. “This is the best thing you’ll ever taste,” she told me. I had my doubts, as at 16, I didn’t think anything that combined cake and alcohol as ingredients could ever taste good.

Oh was I wrong. I was so wrong. One bite and I was hooked. The cake melted in my mouth, the essence of the rum dancing around on my tongue. It was the best thing I had tasted. After that, me and Nat forgot about rum cake for years, as it was sold exclusively in the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Barbados. We could have it shipped to the U.S., but the cost and the hassle was just a bit too much for two teenagers.

So last Saturday, I had my eyes set upon making this luxurious cake, that is, if I already had all of the ingredients. It was 9 p.m. and I was not about to go down to the super market to buy missing pieces of my rum cake puzzle. Miraculously, I happened to have it all, even the vanilla pudding mix the recipe called for ( I used French vanilla, I don’t think it makes too big a difference, if anything it made it better). The real hunt came for the rum. I need whaler vanille rum, otherwise known as Hawaiian style rum. What I found instead of Bacardi Puerto Rican Rum. I had my doubts, but when I took a whiff, it smelled more or less like Tortuga Rum Cake. Thank God for ingredient substitutes, as the recipe called for cake flour and I only had regular flour. Turns out you can substitute about a quarter of corn starch in with regular flour (for a 2 cup measurement) to make cake flour, which means I used 1/4 cup corn start and 1 3/4 cups flour.

So I set off to make my rum cake. And let me tell you, it might be the creation I am most proud of to date.

Although nothing can ever beat the taste of Tortuga, this almost takes the cake.