Feast Like You're On Vacation: Dessert

In May of 2011, I took an amazing vacation to West Palm Beach, Fl. that included a cruise to Grand Bahama and Nassau.  The beaches were beautiful, the food and drinks were spectacular, and it was great to be able to relax with my family.  Even though that trip was a year ago,  my husband and I are constantly trying to relive it through food and drinks.  We have cloned the Goombay Smash from the Iguana Cafe in Nassau and the guacamole from Rocco's Tacos in West Palm Beach.  We've learned how to cook plantains two ways, and made a delicious main course of jerk chicken and Bahamian peas rice.  What could possibly be missing, you ask?  Only what I deem to be the best part of any meal...the dessert!

One of my memories from our cruise was when we stopped in at the Tortuga Rum store in Nassau.  The store was packed with so many different flavors of rum and rum cake, I didn't even bother to count them all.  We purchased multi-packs of varying flavors and then rushed back to our ship, kicked off our shoes and dug in to the little cakes (expertly carved into five equal pieces by my brother with a plastic knife).  They were so good!  When we returned to the states, we wished we had purchased more.  After every crumb of Tortuga rum cake had been eaten, we set out on a quest to find a recipe that would give us the perfect rum cake (or, as perfect as we could get without going back to Nassau).

First, for the perfect rum cake, you need the perfect rum.  After searching the internet and doing a little (or a lot) of taste testing, we arrived at a clear winner.  This cake cannot be made with anything but Cruzan Coconut Rum.

So now, after months of waiting...without further ado...

Coconut Rum Cake (printable recipe)
 

Ingredients:
For cake:
  1 box Betty Crocker Butter Recipe cake mix
  1 box vanilla pudding mix, cook and serve type (not instant!)
  4 eggs
  1/2 c. Cruzan Coconut Rum
  1/2 c. vegetable oil
  1/2 c. water
  1/2 c. shredded coconut
For glaze:
  1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
  1 c. sugar
  1/4 c. water
  1 c. Cruzan Coconut Rum

Method:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine cake mix and pudding mix in a large bowl.  Add the eggs, rum, oil and water.  Using an electric mixer, mix the ingredients until well blended (about 3 minutes).  Prepare a bundt pan by spraying it with cooking spray and sprinkling coconut on the bottom and sides of pan.  Pour batter into pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes.  Cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven and immediately begin the glaze.  Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the water and sugar.  Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and let the mixture sit for a few minutes to cool.  Slowly stir in the rum.  If it starts to bubble, let the mixture cool a little more before adding the rest of the rum.

Remove the now slightly cooled cake from the pan and use a skewer to poke holes all over the cake.  Pour half of the glaze into the bundt pan and then carefully place the cake back in the pan.  Pour the remaining glaze over the cake and let it soak in.  Once all of the glaze has been absorbed by the cake, turn the cake out of the pan and let it cool completely.

Grab a fork and go to town!

Feast Like You're On Vacation

My husband and I recently went on vacation to visit family in West Palm Beach, Fla.  While there, we all took a short cruise to the Bahamas, with stops in Grand Bahama and Nassau.  We saw beautiful beaches with crystal clear water, had delicious food and drinks, and were able to just relax.  It was such a great trip that we have been trying to delude ourselves into thinking we’re still on vacation, even though it has been almost a month since it ended.  During the Memorial Day weekend, we kicked our “vacation” back into high gear with great music, movies, food and drinks that sent us right back to the Caribbean.

Since everyone can use a vacation, I thought I would share the ways my husband and I have managed go with the flow and ride with the tide as if we were still in the Caribbean.  Over the next few days, you'll see recipes for a full Caribbean meal that will have you feeling like you’re on vacation.



 



The Drinks

If there’s one thing you do when you’re on a cruise, in the Bahamas/Caribbean, or on any vacation for that matter, it is drink.  Hopefully that isn’t just me, otherwise I may just have a little bit of a “problem.”  After a quick stop at the liquor store to stock the bar with coconut rum and little umbrellas, it was on to taste-testing as we tried to recreate drinks we had on our trip.  Through several trials, we were able to come up with a few cocktails that can shake you right into vacation mode.

Goombay Smash (printable recipe)

Prior to our vacation, friends had told us that if you’re in the Bahamas, you have to get a Goombay Smash.  I thought, yeah, sure…no one will know what I’m talking about and I’ll look like an idiot.  But, when we stopped for lunch in Nassau, there it was on the drink menu.  We ordered and were not disappointed – it was smooth and delicious, with flavors of coconut and pineapple.  It tasted nothing of alcohol, but we soon realized the “Smash” really stands for something!  If this isn't the exact recipe, it's pretty close, and absolutely spectacular!

Ingredients:

5 oz. pineapple juice
3/4 oz. simple syrup
1 oz. dark rum (Pusser’s Navy)

1 ½ oz. coconut rum (Cruzan)

¼ oz. fresh lime juice

Method:

Shake all ingredients with ice & strain into a glass with ice.

Singapore Sling (printable recipe)
Okay, so Singapore has nothing to do with the Caribbean, but a Singapore Sling is a “boat drink” if I’ve ever tasted one.  The drink originated at Raffles Hotel in Singapore in the early 1900s and people have been trying to duplicate it for ages, with the recipe changing over time.  My husband had his first Singapore Sling at At Random, located at 2501 S. Delaware St. in Milwaukee, a dimly lit 60s-style lounge that only serves specialty drinks.  After more than 5 years, I think he finally cracked the case.  And even if he didn’t figure out the real drink, or even the one served at At Random, who cares when it tastes this good?

Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz. gin (Bombay)
1 oz. Cherry Heering
1/4 oz. triple sec (Cointreau)
1/4 oz. Benedictine
1/4 oz. fresh lime juice
3 oz. pineapple juice
1 dash Angnostra bitters
2 dashes grenadine
4 oz. Ruby Red Squirt soda

Method:
Shake first eight ingredients with ice and strain into balloon glass filled with ice.  Fill to top with soda, stir and garnish with an orange slice and a cherry.  Please note that the Cherry Heering liqueur is an absolute must-have.

Bahamian Breeze (printable recipe)
This drink is similar to the Malibu Twist, but the beautiful color as well as coconut and citrus flavors can transport you straight to a Caribbean paradise.

Ingredients:
1 oz. coconut rum (Cruzan)
2 oz. cranberry juice
2 oz. grapefruit juice

Method:
Shake with ice and strain into a high ball glass filled with ice.  Garnish with orange or grapefruit slice and a cherry.