Christmas and Rum Cake

What are the holidays without a little rumcake? I started thinking that I have always made rum balls and bourbon balls, mixed drink beverages for the holidays, pies with layers of alcohol, such as Grand Marnier between two layers of orange sherbet in a coconut and butter toasted pie crust but I have never attempted a rum cake! Well, I attempted and may I say WoW?! While I am drizzling this rum glaze over my cake, I am seeing that there is glaze being wasted because not all of it is seeping in. Puddles of rum glaze on the plate is NOT acceptable! Rectifying this is easy. . .grab pastry brush and reapply! First, please poke holes in your rum cake. This is a must. You want seepage deep into the cake itself! I want to say that the cake gets moister as it sits but it only lasted 2 1/2 days. Yeppers, I shared and people came back for thirds and fourths. Granted, they were saying things like oh, just a little sliver. . . that's a sliver???!! I can't even see it and then they would be taking a *huge* portion, which is a compliment to this recipe! I really enjoyed making this cake *but* I will warn you ahead of time that is recipe will take a WHOLE cup of rum! I believe that if you wanted to substitute bourbon for rum or experiment with a flavor of rum. . . well, I want to hear about it! Really. . .you need to spill and tell me what flavor and how it turned out! I want to try pineapple rum next time! I was wondering if they have a cherry rum? I see a trip to the liquor store in my near future =D
Also, I want to try this as a French toast for breakfast. . .can you just imagine?

Holiday Rum Cake

Ingredients:
1 c. chopped, toasted pecans or walnuts, whichever you prefer
1 18 1/2-ounce yellow cake mix
1 1 3/4-ounce (4-serving) instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 c. cold milk
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. Bacardi dark rum. . .I believe I used Appleyard (sp?) Jamaican Rum this last time
Glaze:
1/2 c. butter (1 cube)
1/4 c. water
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. dark rum



Directions:

Cake:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts on bottom of pan. Combine all cake ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes on high with electric mixer. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool in pan. Invert on serving plate. Prick top with fork. Drizzle glaze over the top of the cake. Use pastry brush or spoon to put extra dripping back on cake.

Glaze: Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in rum.
**Note: The rum will cause steam. Be careful not to burn yourself