Christmas Rum Cake

Christmas Rum Cake.The first time I made my Christmas Rum Cake was in December 1987. I had two treasures in my hands. The first one, a copy of the first edition of Mi Cocina a la manera de Caracas (My Cuisine, Caracas Way), signed and dedicate by its author, Don Armando Scannone. The second one, a bottle of the first edition of rum añejo Bicentenario, numbered and signed by Don Alberto J. Vollmer.I wanted to bake cakes to give to my Dad, my grandparents and my friends. I also wanted to do something with that particular añejo, absolutely unknown to me, because, at that time, we lived in what we called “Saudi Venezuela.” We loved imported whiskey and erroneously believed that rum wasn’t good enough for, let’s say, “nice” people. So, without knowing it would be a sacrilege, because the añejo was a collector’s edition —launched in preparation to celebrate the bicentennial of the Hacienda Santa Teresa, later in 1996— I used that ultra premium rum in the making of my first Christmas Rum Cake, guided by a torta negra (black cake)  recipe on Scannone’s book.In making the maceration, I replaced the black beer indicated by Don Armando by doubling the amount of rum. As if having a premonition that something good would result from that invention, I saved a little bit of this rum, fruit and spices mixture. The cakes were a success and in January, the following year, I decided to combine the mixture with new ingredients and let it age until Christmas.I have baked my Rum Cake for Christmas over two decades, always reserving some of the “mother” maceration, as if it were a solera, for the following year. When I moved to Southern California, in November 2007, I made some changes to get the thick consistency of the maceration in a short time, and incorporated Rhum Orange Liqueur to the formula.