Each year (usually around a birthday or a holiday), my friend delivers a homemade rum cake to my doorstep that weighs as much as an overfed baby and makes Cinnabons smell like burnt broccoli. Put a piece of it in front of my husband and there’s no one else in the room. Time stops. His hearing fails. He lets out a moan when he opens for the next bite.
So transfixed does he get that I once nearly — nearly — threw out the last hunk of it so he’d shut-up already about Joelly’s culinary prowess. Instead, I ate it —every last sugar-encrusted pecan crumb of it. Then I licked the rum soaked paper plate, which actually might have been the very best part.
If you want to make a statement with friends and family or secure your title as “amazing,” dust off that bundt pan and get going. You could win prizes with this thing.
Note: perhaps obviously, but this is not a project to do with your child. Any directions that include the word “flame” are probably best left to adults only.
Kathy’s Rum Cake (via *adapted by Joelly B.)
Ingredients
For the cake:
1 package yellow cake mix
1 package instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
3/4 cup dark rum*
1/4 cup water*
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup chopped pecans
For the glaze:
1/2 stick Butter
2 t Water
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Dark rum
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350.
Grease and flour a bundt cake pan. Sprinkle chopped pecans evenly around the bottom of the pan. Whisk together cake mix and pudding mix. Add liquid and eggs. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed for 4 minutes. Pour batter into pan and bake for 1 hour. Cool approximately 10 minutes. Upend on plate and prick all over with a toothpick. Pour glaze over top and let sit for at least one hour before serving (several hours is better).
Glaze:
Mix together water, sugar, and butter in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and continue to boil over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Mixture will become thick and will pull away from the sides of the saucepan. Add rum, keeping face away from the pan to avoid the alcohol cloud (FLAME) which will billow up! Stir vigorously and remove from heat. Pour slowly over top of cake.