This is the perfect fall dessert to make! Apple Spice Mini Rum Cakes are a twist on pound cake, made with fall spices like cloves, ginger and allspice, spiced rum and crisp apples. Serve it with a homemade spiced rum caramel sauce and top with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

Pouring caramel sauce over mini bundt cakes with a spoon.

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This blog post was originally written as a guest post for my sweet friend Erin from The Speckled Palate. You can find the original here.

When Erin first asked me to write a guest post for her during her maternity leave, my wheels began turning. I pretty much knew I wanted to do something dessert related because any excuse for baking is something I quickly accept.

As we were looking in our pantry one day, my husband said to me, you should make a dessert with this spiced rum in it! Okay, husband, I will do just that.

Mini bundt loaf pan on top of a blue chambray napkin, with spiced cake batter in the pan.

We have a pound cake recipe that's been in my husband's family for 100+ years. It happens to be my husband's #2 weakness when it comes to dessert. This is his first. So when he brought up the idea of using the spiced rum, I immediately thought of doing a spiced rum pound cake.

Everyone goes bananas for pumpkin in the fall and I do too, don't get me wrong, but I also go wild for apple season. I love apple desserts, using apples in cooking like this apple pork tenderloin dish, and this seemed like a natural fit to pair the sweetness of crisp, Granny Smith apples with the spiciness of the rum.

Mini bundt shaped cakes sitting on a white serving platter with small jar of caramel in the background.

Rum cakes are simply just cakes with rum in them, imagine that. So this apple spice rum cake is our family pound cake recipe, apples, fall spices like ginger, cloves and allspice, and the spiced rum.

Now, I will add in a disclaimer here that I probably wouldn't choose to drink spiced rum on its own. But in this cake? Heck yes.

Spoon above glass jar of caramel sauce. Spoon is covered with caramel and dripping back into the jar. Mini rum cakes are off to the lefthand side of the photo.

Especially when this cake involves this caramel sauce. Oh, caramel sauce. Easily my favorite sauce choice for desserts. This homemade spiced rum caramel sauce is super easy to make. If you've never made homemade caramel before, don't be nervous. It's really so easy to make, I promise.

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How do I make homemade caramel?

Homemade caramel is made simply by cooking sugar on the stove on medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar begins to clump up and then melt. As you continue stirring, the sugar will being to change color to an amber color.

After the sugar has all melted, remove pan from heat, stir in butter until melted, then add heavy cream. After it is all combined add to stove again and cook on low to medium heat for 3-4 minutes, allowing the caramel to bubble and thicken.

Glass mason jar of homemade boozy caramel sauce with white serving plate of apple spice cakes to the left.

How do I make boozy caramel sauce?

Follow the steps to make homemade caramel sauce. After your sauce is done, pour 1-2 ounces of liquor into caramel sauce and stir. The sauce will be watery. Let it sit until it thickens back up. Place in refrigerator to thicken even more or to store.

Overhead shot of mini apple spice bundt cakes on a rectangular white serving platter with blue chambray napkin and jar of caramel sauce next to the serving platter.

Baking is a funny thing. It's waaay more scientific than cooking, I definitely can't just throw some ingredients together and hope for the best. It'll probably end up looking like those iconic Pinterest fail images. BUT, I've found that having tried and true base recipes to tweak makes experimenting with baking so much easier.

So, the example here is starting with our 100-year-old family pound cake recipe and tweaking it to turn into this fall apple rum cake recipe.

Another fall favorite? These Pumpkin Spice Donuts are droolworthy!

Close up shot of spiced apple mini rum cakes, showing small speckles of spices in the cakes.

One of the greatest parts about this recipe is that the rum is baked out but you still get the flavor so this is perfect for mamas to be, too. And after baby comes, you can indulge with the spiced rum caramel sauce poured on top.

Speaking of pouring some caramel sauce on top, how else can you eat this apple spiced rum cake? Well, pretty much any way you please.

Eat it cold out of the fridge, warm it up and top with ice cream, make it feel healthy-ish with a scoop of plain Greek yogurt. No matter how you choose to eat it, it's gonna be delish, I promise.

Mini spice cake that has had a bite taken out of it with a fork. Shows the inside of the cake with a scoop of ice cream and caramel drizzled on it.

Is there any alcohol in rum cake?

Yes, there is. If you omit the spiced rum caramel sauce, it will just have the lovely taste from the spiced rum, without the alcohol content.

What spices are in rum cake?

This fall apple spice rum cake has allspice, ginger and cloves.

Mini bundt shaped cakes sitting on a white serving platter covered in homemade caramel sauce.

Can I make this without rum?

Absolutely. Just skip over that ingredient if you prefer it to be non-alcoholic.

What do I need to make these mini spiced rum cakes?

Pouring caramel sauce over mini bundt cakes topped with vanilla ice cream with a spoon.

What else can I serve with Apple Spice Mini Rum Cakes?

If you're hosting a brunch or maybe a fall baby shower, consider serving these cakes as dessert but pair it with some other great brunch recipes like:

If you're hosting a dinner party, these cakes would be the perfect dessert to compliment these fall dinner recipes: