Bacardi Rum Cake

This fabulous cake was handed down from your Grandmother Clark. The first time I made it, I was not using good sense and was too quick to remove the cake from the tube pan before it had ample time to cool. James was coming home this particular weekend from college, and I wanted to make him a snack so he'd have something special to eat as soon as he arrived. Well, it was special alright -- it broke into a million pieces on the kitchen counter right before he walked in! He was either starved to death or really did love it, as he stood there with a fork and nearly ravished the entire cake leaving only a few crumbs on the counter! It was really comical! I do remember him asking me to bake this cake again -- so I guess it was the latter explanation as to why he nearly ate the entire thing off the counter.

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I use pecans)
1 18.5 oz. box yellow cake mix
3 3/4 oz. packages Jello vanilla instant pudding and pie filling
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup Wesson oil
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum (80 proof)

Glaze:
1/4 pound butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum

Directions:
Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in rum.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 10" tube or 12-cup bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts evenly over bottom of pan. Mix all cake ingredients together. Pour batter over nuts. Bake 1 hour; Cool. Invert onto serving plate. (Make sure cake is completely cool prior to removing from pan -- this is where I messed up).

Note: Using an ice pick, prick many holes in top of cake -- this will allow the rum glaze to absorb quicker throughout the cake. I was told to prick top of cake with toothpicks, well this took forever. Also, drizzle glaze down the sides of cake. I did not end up using all the glaze -- just use your own judgment. I used maybe a little more than half. The first time I made this cake and used all the glaze, I felt the cake was too wet and soggy.