In the novel A Confederacy of Dunces, Ignatius Reilly and the wannabe stripper, Darlene, both have an affection for wine cakes, smallish yellow cakes soaked in wine and topped with whipped cream and cherries. This dessert goes 
all the way back to Creole Louisiana’s antebellum days, when cakes such as savarin, a French pastry doused with alcohol, were a must at holiday dinner tables. In New Orleans you can still buy wine cakes at Dorignac’s Grocery Store, and Brocato’s Bakery sells its close cousin, Baba Rhum.
A Confederacy of Dunces Cookbook Website
Rum-soaked mini cakes topped with whipped cream and a cherry are classic New Orleans treats. Perfect for book clubs discussing A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, this recipe comes from A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES COOKBOOK.
Ingredients
2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon iodized salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar, divided
4 large eggs, room temperature
¼ teaspoon ground cloves, optional
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups dark rum, divided (or port, sherry, marsala, or even wine!)
½ cup chilled whipping cream
6 or 12 maraschino cherries
Instructions
Make cakes: Preheat oven to 325°F. Generously grease and flour six 4-inch baking molds or 12 muffin tins and set aside. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together and set aside.
In a large bowl of a mixer, cream together butter and 1 cup sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. (Scrape down sides occasionally.) Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add cloves, if using, and vanilla.
Using low mixer speed, gradually add flour mixture and ½ cup rum to butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Beat until just combined.
Pour batter into prepared pans until they’re 2/3 full and level off tops. Bake on center rack of oven until brown and center springs back when lightly touched, about 40 minutes (30 minutes for muffins).
Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes in pans. Remove cakes from pans and place on a rack to cool.
Make Wine Syrup: Boil together 2/3 cup water and remaining 1 cup sugar until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, pour into a 4-cup measuring cup or equivalent shaped bowl and cool 2 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 cup rum.
Completely submerge each cake into syrup and hold down in the liquid a few seconds. Place saturated cakes in a rimmed baking pan. Pour remaining wine syrup over cakes. Wrap pan tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
When ready to serve, place cream in medium bowl of a mixer and beat at medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Place cakes on a rimmed serving dish and pour remaining wine syrup over each. Top each with a spoonful of whipped cream and a cherry.
Notes
Make one day ahead.