Tuesdays with Dorie: Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes, a Trifle and some News

This week Wendy of Pink Stripes chose Dorie's Rum-Drenched Vanilla Cakes and as usual I tweaked the recipe. Honestly I can't remember the last time I actually made a recipe exactly as stated (apart from the Raisin Swirl Bread which was utter perfection!).

After realising these cakes were a variation on a standard pound cake I immediately thought trifle! We're not huge fans of rum (although I always have a stash for my Christmas baking) so I used just 1 ts in the batter. Surprisingly this was enough to create not only a great taste but a fabulous aroma while baking.

I made half the recipe (1 cake) and ended up with a mountain of perfect little cake cubes.

While in the past I have gone all out making a trifle, this time I went simple and no-fuss ... cake, jelly, tinned peaches and custard. I made a drenching syrup using some of the juice from my drained tin of peaches and this was a fabulous addition. I recently discovered Aeroplane jelly has a 25% reduced sugar variety with natural colours and flavours so that's what I used here in raspberry.
So regular readers may have noticed my blogging has become a little sporadic recently. I'm a little embarrassed to see just how long it has been since posting anything other than TWD, Daring Bakers or Daring Cooks.

My excuse? We've been cooking up anther little project around here. Due mid-November. Oh, and it's a boy! :-)