Pioneer Woman's Christmas Rum Cake

I saw this recipe for Christmas Rum Cake on the Pioneer Woman's cooking blog. It looked delicious, so I had to try it.

Here's the recipe, just as PW wrote it:
Pioneer Woman’s Mother-in-Law’s Christmas Rum Cake

Cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 small package INSTANT vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup rum (dark or light is fine)
1 cup chopped pecans
Brown sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour Bundt cake pan. Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan. If desired, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar over the nuts. Mix all cake ingredients together. Pour batter over nuts. Smooth out ’til the top is even. Bake 1 hour, or a little less if the pan is black. Do not overbake!

Glaze: While cake has ten minutes to go, make the glaze.
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup rum

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn off flame and pour in rum. Stir to combine and reheat for 30 seconds.
Remove cake from oven. Immediately drizzle 1/3 of the glaze on the bottom (top) of the cake. Allow to sit for five minutes.

Invert the cake onto a serving plate. Prick surface a hundred times with a fork (gently, please.) Slowly drizzle remaining rum glaze all over the top of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Cool to room temperature.


Next time I make this cake, I will change a couple of things. I used only 1/2 a cup of pecans, because we don't especially cake for nuts. Definitely use the brown sugar. For the glaze, I would only use 1 stick of butter. The glaze was pretty runny and hard to keep on the cake. And I had more than I really needed. The cake was delicious though, and very moist.