Many years ago, about 400 in fact, a careless pirate captain lost his prize rum cake recipe. Well, he didn't really lose it, he put it in a pirate chest which disappeared after his death, or so the story goes.
The good news is that the rum cake is alive and well and available in St. Thomas.
Brigitte Bornn is happily offering Capt. Rackham's original pirate rum cakes in her bright new U.S.V.I. Rum Cake Centre in Havensight Mall, which opened Nov. 1. Brigitte is the recent bride of St. Thomas' Michael Bornn, whom she married about a year and a half ago.
Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, Brigitte went to college in Florida where she earned a dietician's degree. But when it comes to rum cakes, all bets are off.
"Tsk," she said. Obviously, she has abandoned her interest in stricter dietary concepts.
Bornn worked for 12 years in real estate in Florida, and met her husband three years ago when her company needed somebody to meet with a V.I. representative, and as they say, the rest is history.
Bornn now considers herself a true Virgin Islander, "I love St. Thomas, have since I first came to the island-I'm an island girl, you know," she said.
The shop is totally Virgin Islands, from the rum cakes which are made exclusively with Cruzan Rum, to the University of the Virgin Islands T-shirts and other memorabilia with the UVI logo, the prints and maps from Michael Paiewonsky's MAPes MONDe collection and "Jerome's St. Thomas Hot Sauce."
But that's not all. Large sepia prints from the Cruzan factory on St. Croix adorn one wall, including one dating back to 1920, showing the loading of rum onto ships for export.
If the powerful aroma of the rum cakes doesn't draw you into the shop-and how could it not?-the music will. Bornn has fallen in love with the St. Thomas All Stars Steel Symphony, "I play it all day, all the time."
Bornn has some very definite and original ideas about marketing. "I'm a natural salesperson, after 12 years in real estate," she said. She waited a while after moving to St. Thomas after last year's July wedding, to decide where to put her talents. She wanted to do something local, and the rum cakes seemed a natural. It's taken about one year, and a lot of labor for the 1,200-square-foot shop to come into being.
"And everything's local," she said, proudly pointing out the Cruzan rum barrels she and Michael have painted and use for display table foundations. Her staff consists right now of St. Thomian Vincia Thomas. Both Thomas and Bornn dress in pirate outfits, complete with brimmed hats.
"I looked around trying to figure out what would bring in the cruise ship passengers," she said. "And we're the only ones dressed as pirates."
But the aroma is the most novel idea. Bornn has two fancy toaster ovens by the dock side entrance of the shop, with a vent right over them. Thomas puts the sample trays of the rum cakes in the oven to heat, and the passengers follow the scent right in.
"Lady pirates, steel drums, and rum cakes, what more do they need?," Bornn said. There are six varieties of cakes: banana (real bananas, not banana rum), chocolate, coffee, original, Key Lime and coconut, and six overloaded sample trays kept amply filled. Bornn said, "It's like Mrs. Field's cookies-no matter what diet you're on, if you go in her shop, you're going to have a cookie." Though, unlike Mrs. Field's cookies, the cakes contain rum, Bornn assured it's only 1.85 percent, so one isn't likely to stagger out of the shop after a sample.
The cakes come in all sizes and containers, and there's an ample supply of all flavors of Cruzan rum and other Cruzan products like cigars, yup rum flavored cigars, as well. The cakes are rich and extremely moist, Bornn said. This was attested to by Jane and Jerry Immel, of Immel's Marine in Crown Bay, who were wandering around Havensight Friday when they suddenly caught a whiff of rum and followed the scent right into the shop.
"And she's right," said Jane, smiling in the midst of all the samples. "Very moist."
The company has a Web site that will be up soon, www.virumcakes.com, where all the shop's products can be ordered. But you don't get the free samples-or the aroma.
