In 1671, the buccaneer Henry Morgan ordered his pirate forces to take Panama City, then the richest port in the world. Knowing resistance was futile, the governor put the city to the torch and fled.

While the city smoldered, Captain Morgan, holding a tankard of rum in one hand and a piece of cake in the other, sat calmly on a keg of rum and admired the bounty of his victory. Taking a bit of the cake, he quickly spat it out, “Too damned dry,” he bellowed.

Barely daring to look his captain in the eye, the first mate suggested he dip the cake in the rum. Morgan did and liked what he tasted. And thus did the pirate, Captain Henry Morgan, consume both the famous ancient city of Panama – and the very first Panama Rum Cake!