Business owner Claire Smith had a problem with rum cakes on the island – not enough rum.

On December 3 she launched her own line of the alcohol-soaked confections at her store, the Bermuda Triangle Shop in Dockyard.

“I wanted to carry a rum cake, because I love the idea of consumables,” she said. “I liked the idea of a gift you could eat.”

Ms Smith grew up eating rum cake.

“I loved it,” she said. “My mother, Audrey Smith, made a wicked rum cake. Back in the day, Bacardi came out with a recipe for rum cake and everybody was making it.”

Ms Smith recently found a Bacardi rum cake recipe card in her late mother’s things.

“Her handwriting was all over it,” she said. “It was a very good recipe and very rummy.”

Ms Smith decided to develop her own recipe heavy on the Gosling’s Black Seal.

“We are now baking with a local restaurant,” she said. “I love that we are supporting local industry. There is not a lot of manufacturing that goes on here.”

Developing the cakes turned out to be a lot of work.

“It was a lot to do,” she said. “We had to design artwork for our boxes. That was probably the hardest part. We had to find someone to make it. We had to find tissue paper to go in the box. It was a passion project, and I am really proud of the cake that we produced.”

The cakes are meant to be a celebration of Bermuda’s culinary heritage.

“Rum cake originated in Bermuda during the 17th century when British settlers brought their recipes for steamed fruit pudding to the island,” the entrepreneur said. “At the time, the Royal Navy soaked the puddings, which we now call cakes, in rum as a preservative so they would last at sea. The result was a tasty treat Bermudians have enjoyed since the beginning.”

The cakes come in three flavours, traditional, dark and stormy with ginger, and chocolate.

“We do not use any chemical preservatives in our cake preferring a more generous dose of rum instead,” she said.

The cakes are estimated to safely last for 30 days.

She expected that their busiest time of year for sales would be when the cruise ships are in. However, she wants locals to know she is selling the rum cakes, also.

“We would like them to come in and try it,” she said.

The shop owner said Christmas was quiet in Dockyard this year.

“We do not get a lot of Christmas business, even though we sell things that make great gifts,” she said. “Over the years, the mall has pivoted more and more towards tourists and away from locals.”