A rum cake is an easy, festive addition to any holiday table. The rum-infused sponge is baked in a Bundt pan, drizzled and brushed with a rum syrup. The result is a cake that’s so moist and rich it doesn’t require any frosting or glaze. It pairs well with a cup of coffee, or as a sweet conclusion to a day of celebrations. Contrarily, if you’re abstaining from alcohol, ignore people when they tell you all the alcohol evacuates during baking — it doesn’t.

Generally, alcohol primarily acts as a flavor transport for the specific taste a recipe demands, whether it’s a luscious rum cake or a red wine sauce for your steak. Moreover, alcohol boosts the flavors of other ingredients, like in a penne alla vodka which allows the flavor of the tomato to shine through and softens the meat. It’s a versatile additive, and there are a myriad of reasons to use it, but bear in mind that although a fair amount of alcohol does evaporate, it’s never fully gone.

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When cooking with alcohol, it’s not feasible to get rid of all the alcohol in a dish or dessert. The amount that remains revolves around several factors like cooking temperature, length of cooking time, and the cooking dish’s surface area. Alcohol evaporates faster at elevated temperatures, and a greater amount is cooked off as the cooking time is prolonged. Regardless, some alcohol molecules will bind to other molecules in the dish and remain. It’s been proven that even after cooking dishes for extended periods, a fraction of the alcohol linger in the recipe.

Moreover, when baking a rum cake, the size of your cookware is of essential consideration. A larger cooking vessel provides more surface area for contact with oxygen, leading to quicker evaporation of the alcohol within a larger pot or pan. It’s also vital to consider your recipe and ingredients. For instance, a rum syrup topping for your cake will likely not cook long enough, or at the necessary temperature, to allow much alcohol to evaporate. The actual cake, meanwhile, typically requires half to one cup of rum, resulting in a baked good with roughly 5% alcohol content- the same as a beer!

Although not all dishes will end up as alcohol-heavy as a rum cake, there are many valid reasons you may opt to replace the alcohol in your recipe. Be it for health, recovery, or religious reasons, don’t feel like you’re missing out. There are numerous alternatives to using alcohol in rum cake and other alcohol-dependent recipes. The focus should be on flavor, the alcohol’s simply acting as its vehicle. You can replicate similar tastes without using alcohol by following various cookery and bakery ingredient substitutions, such as a variety of vinegars, herbs, spices, and syrups.

With ingredients such as rum extracts and rum-flavored syrups, or a combination of elements like white grape juice, molasses, and almond extract, you can bake a rum cake. Alternatively, consider using non-alcoholic rum. There’s a wide range of non-alcoholic spirits that can act as substitutes for their alcoholic counterparts. So, you can always bake your next rum cake alcohol-free and not worry about the alcohol content in your future baking endeavors.

Here is the original article from Daily Meal for more information.