Rum cake associated with Christmas in Trinidad and Tobago. In Puerto Rico, rum cake is called "Bizcocho de Ron", and is a sponge cake, so as to absorb the rum. If fruit is added to it, it is fresh or dried. Raisins and sultanas may be soaked in rum for one day or one night. Bizcochos de Ron are given as gifts during the holiday season, but they are not considered an insulting gift, the way fruitcakes in the U.S. sometimes are. In the United States, rum cakes have been popular since at least the 1970s. While many island travelers go out
Rum this type of rum first originated on the island of Barbados. However, in the decade of the 1620s, rum production was also recorded in Brazil. A liquid identified as rum has been found in a tin bottle found on the Swedish warship "Vasa", which sank in 1628. A 1651 document from Barbados stated, "The chief fuddling they make in the island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Divil, and this is made of sugar canes distilled, a hot, hellish, and terrible liquor." After rum's development in the Caribbean, the drink's popularity spread to Colonial North America. To support the demand for the drink,