Desserts and holidays go hand in hand. Whether you’re baking Christmas cookies, pies, muffins, chocolate bark or cakes, everyone’s sweet tooth kicks into overdrive when the festivities start. One dessert in particular though that makes an appearance at gatherings around the world is rum cake. Like the name suggests, it’s a cake made with golden or dark rum and is often used interchangeably with “black cake,” although they are made using different methods.

Barbados native and founder of the Brooklyn-based Black Cake Company, Angela Price, did some initial research on the origins of black cake and found that it is a derivative of English plum pudding, also known as Christmas pudding. 

“It’s basically like a fruitcake and it’s steamed. But then of course, I guess, when it got to the Caribbean, the black cake started to be baked as opposed to steamed,” Price said, who has been making black cake for over 30 years. Traditional black cake is baked with fruit that’s been aged in rum for several months (think boozy fruit cake) and burnt sugar that gives it a darker color. 

“You can age it for as long as you like. We say rum aging is up to two to three months, and I know people have aged the fruit for years,” Price said. “A lot of times, in the Caribbean you would set it early so you would set it like maybe in August and then never bake the cake until December at Christmas time. It’s a two-step process just to make a black cake. It’s really not something that you can just whip up and have it done, as it also takes longer to bake at a lower temperature so it doesn’t burn.”

Rum cake made using pound cake as a base is typically infused with rum by poking holes into it after it comes out of the oven rather than using aged fruit. “The rum cake is just a pound cake with rum added afterward and it’s a very moist cake. We’ve added different flavors, so now we have coconut, chocolate and banana, and then we have our original flavor, rum cake, so you can have some choices. It is relatively easy to make,” Price said. 

While rum fruit cake — or black cake — is the more commonly found across islands in the Caribbean, when baked correctly, rum-soaked pound cake still packs the same bold flavors with less preparation time. 

Rum cake made using pound cake as a base is typically infused with rum by poking holes into it after it comes out of the oven rather than using aged fruit. “The rum cake is just a pound cake with rum added afterward and it’s a very moist cake. We’ve added different flavors, so now we have coconut, chocolate and banana, and then we have our original flavor, rum cake, so you can have some choices. It is relatively easy to make,” Price said. 

While rum fruit cake – or black cake – is the more commonly found across islands in the Caribbean, when baked correctly, rum-soaked pound cake still packs the same bold flavors with less preparation time. 

This version of the cake is how the owner of Patsy’s Rum Cake, Kathy-Ann Misick, has made it for the past 10 years. Before moving to the States, Misick grew up in the Turks and Caicos and learned to bake from her mother who is Jamaican. 

“For a couple of years, my mother used to sell her homemade patties out of the back of a pharmacy that she owned. She was a pharmacist at the time and decided to try and sell her patties as well. So, I would come to the pharmacy after school and sometimes hang out there in the back while she was prepping or selling patties,” Misick said. “I never learned fully how to make the patties, which is my next project, but I did start trying out recipes on my own when I was 11 or 12 and I just really loved it. I tested it out on my brother and his friends and just kept going, but it was just a hobby. Until I got the idea to start Patsy’s, I was just making cakes on special occasions for friends and family.”

Patsy’s, which is named after her mother, soft launched in November 2019 in Misick’s Brooklyn home. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, she is taking extra safety precautions to disinfect her kitchen, baking tools, utensils, and containers in addition to wearing a face mask and gloves, and regularly washing her hands. She also has a food handler’s certificate from the New York City Department of Health.  

She decided to start the business as a way to not only fuel her creativity and provide additional income, but also to share her culture with New York’s diverse communities. 

“I finally landed on rum cake because it’s something I could afford to do with very little startup. I could do it from home, I knew that people liked it, and I felt like being in Brooklyn, there was a market because there’s a big Caribbean community, but also people in New York in general are just more open to trying new cuisines from other cultures,” Misick said. 

Patsy’s currently offers classic rum cake, but it also comes in mini sizes and other flavors including rum raisin, walnut, coconut, and chocolate, which comes in a stacked heart shape because we could all use some love.  

“I needed a promotion for Valentine’s Day. Like with all my flavors, the idea comes first and then I test it out. I went through a couple of chocolate rum cake recipes before landing on this one,” Misick said. “I was looking for it to really taste chocolate-y because nothing’s worse than a chocolate cake without enough chocolate in it.”

While we still have a few months before Cupid’s arrow hits, rum cake can be served during any special occasion, especially Christmas, which Misick said the cake reminds her of.

“It only brings good memories because it’s always present at celebratory times,” she said. “I think of my first attempt at making it. I was living in Florida and I remember sharing it with my friends and my family and getting their reaction and them saying that it was better than the cakes you buy in the tin. If I’m going to visit family, I’ll usually get a request to bring rum cake with me.”

Although Patsy’s primarily operates as an online business (with U.S. shipping!), Misick occasionally does pop-ups at Sally’s, an Asian-Caribbean fusion restaurant and bar in Bed-Stuy. Their menu even features a matcha coconut rum cake made by Misick that’s currently sold out according to their website.  

Misick’s process for coming up with new authentic flavors starts with one key requirement: the cake has to contain flavors or ingredients that would be used in a Caribbean food or drink. “I find inspiration for flavors everywhere. Sometimes friends or customers share suggestions. Some are a twist on a classic like my pineapple rum cake, which is coming to the online store soon. I’ve even gotten ideas from cocktails. Then I develop, tweak, and test the recipe until it’s ready to share,” she said.

Misick’s decade of rum cake baking hasn’t worn down her passion in continuing to grow her business, as she said making the cake is one of her favorite things to do — along with eating it, of course. 

“For me, rum cake means celebrations and a special connection to my Caribbean culture and heritage – especially the Jamaican side,” she said. “It’s a reminder of all the ways we are connected with our loved ones through rum cake. We gift rum cake, we make it for each other and we enjoy it together during happy times.”

Ways to Get Your Own Rum Cake

You can place an order for a rum cake (or two) and find out where Patsy’s next pop-up is at patsysrumcake.com.  U.S. shipping, delivery and pickup is available. 

You can also place an order for a black cake or rum cake from The Black Cake Company at www.blackcake.com. U.S. shipping is available.Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Kristen Adaway is a staff writer at Thrillist. Follow her @kristenadaway.