Cool Shops at the Beach: Get bushwacked at Rum Sisters bakery in Gulf Shores
By Brian Kelly | bkelly@al.com AL.com
Gulf Shores, AL /storypackage /#article_inset Article
Tourists and locals over age 21 can get their bushwacker fix at any number of beach bars here in Pleasure Island. It's the unofficial drink of Alabama's beaches.
But there's another way to get that unmistakable bushwacker flavor. In, of all things, a dessert. Bunt cake to be precise.
And there's only one bakery to get a bushwacker bunt cake -- Rum Sisters in Gulf Shores located at E. 2nd Street in the heart of Gulf Shores.
Recently, Rum Sisters marked the one year anniversary since opening. Owners Elizabeth Jones and Kelly O'Sullivan have made quite a name for their unique bunt cakes prepared with a variety of alcohols.
"We make alcohol-infused bunt cakes right here on site," said O'Sullivan. "We use rum and bourbon mostly. The bushwacker pretty popular."
The business venture began a little more than a year ago at the Blue Marlin Championship at The Wharf when the pair delivered their alcohol-infused cakes to anglers after coming in. It took off from there.
"We showed up with something like seventy-five bunt cakes and people were asking where they can buy our cakes," Jones explained. "Next thing you know we were putting together a business plan. And it's all been word of mouth since then."
The cakes come in three sizes; baby ($5), small ($22) and large ($45), and each cake contains about two-thirds alcohol. But don't worry, you won't get the same result as a cocktail. "The alcohol is pretty much evaporates in the baking process. But one of the top questions we get is 'will I get buzzed from your cakes?' You won't," Jones said.
The pair prepare about 1,000 bunt cakes per week in an 1,100 square-foot building. Customers wander in for coffee and to taste the many flavors of cake. The menu includes Keel Over, Drunken Monkey, Spice It Up, Sunset Sizzle, Corporate Delights, and Twisted Sista, a bunt cake infused with Kahlua and white and dark chocolates.
"Our customers are very diverse. A lot of folks just bring a variety of the small cakes to a condominium for a party or on wedding tables, O'Sullivan said. "But we also have a lot of locals that go the gym then come in for a small bunt cake."
Rum Sisters is located at 2200 E. 2nd Street, Suite J., Gulf Shores, Ala., 251-517-0444251-517-0444. Visit them on Facebook.