Pirates Cake

When I use rum I always think of pirates and Cuba, that’s why this cake is called “Pirates Cake”. In 2004 I visited Cuba and I was very impressed to watch how Cubans make their rum that made me use rum in almost all my recipes. I use it even in the traditional Greek sweets, and believe me, it gives my recipes such a great taste and aroma that everybody is asking what is my “secret” ingredient.

I used ganache for the filling and coating of the cake, because I wanted my cake to have a bit of a color, and also because my son Nicolas would only eat it if I had some kind of a chocolate in it. You can use any filling that you like. I truly believe that strawberry or orange fillings would be perfect with this type of cake as well.

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Pirates Cake
Cake Ingredients
¾ cup vegetable oil
350gr caster sugar (1 ½ cup)
3 large eggs
2 tspns rum
1 tspn vanilla essence
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 tspn baking powder
350ml evaporated milk
100gr Greek yogurt (approximately 1/3 cup)

Ganache Ingredients
250ml fresh cream
300g dark eating chocolate (chopped)
½ tspn butter
½ tspn rum

Cake Preparation
1) Beat oil with sugar until well mixed.
2) Add one by one the eggs. Each egg has to be well mixed with the oil mixture before you add the next one. Then add the rum.
3) Sift flour and add the vanilla essence. Add half of the flour to the oil mixture. Then add half of the milk. Do not over mix.
4) Repeat the same procedure with the rest of the flour and the milk.
5) Finally add the yogurt and combine.
6) Divide the cake mixture into two 20cm round pans, and bake in a preheated oven at 170ºC, for 45 – 50 minutes.

Ganache Preparation
Prepare ganache by bringing cream to a boil in small saucepan. Remove from heat; add chocolate, stir until smooth. Finally incorporate in it the butter and rum. Mix well.