Banana Rum Cake with Buttered Rum Sauce

I love all of my cookbooks.

Some I love more than others.

Some I use more than others.

One that I use alot is by the Cake Mix Doctor.
What I like about the Cake Mix Doctor is she usually starts with a cake mix and goes up from there.

There's a long story as to why I made this cake last week.

But a hint as to why I made it:  The Mr. forgot to tell me that I needed to send some "treats" to work with him the next day.

Oh yeah.
Not just "treats" -- but his secretary was leaving and this was the staff good-bye.
Oh yes.
In a scramble, I looked through this great cake cookbook and decided to give this recipe a try.
The cherubs were so glad I did -- it's delicious!

Banana Buttered Rum Cake

3 medium-size ripe bananas, or 2 large ripe bananas
1 package (18.5 ounces) plain butter recipe golden cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
½ cup light or dark rum
½ cup water
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs

FOR THE GLAZE

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
¼ cup light or dark rum
¼ cup water

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly mist a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust it with flour. Shake out the excess flour.

Peel bananas and place them in a large mixing bowl. Beat bananas with an electric mixer on low speed until mashed. Add cake mix, pudding mix, ½ cup of rum, ½ cup of water, and the oil, vanilla and eggs to the bananas. Beat on low speed until ingredients are combined, 1 minute. Stop. Scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes longer, scraping down the side of the bowl again if needed. The batter should look thick and well combined.

Pour the batter in the prepared Bundt pan, smoothing the top with the rubber spatula.

Bake the cake until it is just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan and the top springs back when lightly pressed with a finger, 50 to 55 minutes. Transfer the Bundt pan to a wire rack and let cake cool for 10 to 15 minutes.

Make the glaze:

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar, rum and water. Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture boils, 3 to 4 minutes. Let glaze boil and continue stirring until it thickens, about 3 minutes longer.

Remove saucepan from the heat and set the glaze aside to cool 10 minutes.

Run a long, sharp knife around the edges of the cake, shake pan gently, and invert the cake onto a wire rack. Let the cake cool 10 minutes longer, then place it on a cake plate with raised sides.

Using a long wooden skewer, poke 12 to 16 holes in the top of the cake and slowly spoon the warm glaze over warm cake. Keep spooning until most of the glaze is absorbed (see note below). Let the cake cool to room temperature, 15 to 20 minutes, then slice it and serve.
Note: This makes a generous amount of glaze, and the glaze contributes to the moist and flavorful cake. But if you like, spoon only half of the glaze over the cake and save the other half to reheat gently and spoon over the cake slices when serving them with ice cream.
Store: Wrapped in foil or plastic wrap or placed in a cake saver, store at room temperature for up to 5 days. Freeze, wrapped in foil, for up to 6 months. Let the cake thaw overnight on the counter before serving.