Caramel Rum Delirium Ice Cream Cake* Part 1

This is not a casual Tuesday night dessert. This is the one you build for the big occasions.

A cream cheese cake gets flavored with homemade caramel and dark rum, baked until rich and dense, then layered with double mocha ice cream and drowned in semisweet chocolate ganache.

The caramel is made from scratch by caramelizing sugar with lemon juice until it turns deep amber, then hitting it with heavy cream for a smooth, buttery sauce.

This is Part 1, covering the caramel flavoring and the cake itself.

Chef Tips

• Watch the sugar like a hawk while caramelizing. It goes from golden to burnt in seconds, and there’s no coming back from that.
• When you add the cream to the hot caramel, stand back. It will steam and bubble violently. Use a long whisk and pour slowly.
• Let the caramel cool completely to room temperature before adding it to the batter. Hot caramel will melt the cream cheese and throw off the whole texture.
• Use Myers’s dark rum if you can find it. The molasses depth in dark rum is what gives this cake its signature flavor.