Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Pirate’s Rum Cake

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In your stand mixer or in a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, rum, eggs, oil and water. Mix to combine.

Get out your trusty bundt pan and spray really well with Baker’s Joy. I can’t tell you how much I love Baker’s Joy. Whenever I have to flip something out, wanting it to look ever-so-beautiful, I use this stuff. Be sure to spray up the sides of the tube on the bundt pan, getting inside all the nooks and crannies of the pan sprayed.

Pour batter into the pan. Then sprinkle the walnuts evenly over the top of the batter.

Now pop your pan into your preheated oven, and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. This all depends on your oven temperature. Keep watching it, and be sure to do the toothpick test to ensure the inside center is baked thoroughly.

About 10 minutes before the cake is done, it’s time to make the glaze.

Get out a small pan and place in your butter, sugar, and rum. Place on the stove on medium high heat (the number 8 on your stove setting). With your wooden spoon, stir and stir until this mixture comes to a soft rolling boil. You want to keep stirring this so the sugar breaks down and is not all gritty. Kind of like what you would do if you are making fudge.

Stir, stir, stir, stir. This is where I might start using my pirate accent and sing “Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum” (to kill time while I’m stirring, you know). Shiver me timbers, this rum sure smells good!

Once the glaze is at a soft rolling boil, and the sugar is broken down, set the pan aside, off the burner.

Take your cake out of the oven and set your bundt pan on a cookie sheet. This is so the glaze won’t run off onto your counter. Gently pour the wonderful rummy glaze over the top of the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Now let this set for a good 2 hours (pirate time), so the rum glaze can seep into the cake. After about 2 hours, you will come back, and in amazement you will see how the floating rum has miraculously worked its way down into the cake, start to harden, and become glaze-like.

Take your butter knife, and gently slide it down the sides of the pan to un-crust the glaze that might be holding the cake to the pan. Be sure to slide the knife down the tube side of the pan, too.

Now it’s time for a trick, worthy of a high-ranking pirate.

Take out two plates. One plate will be your nice pretty serving plate. The other plate will be just a regular dinner plate. Place your regular ole dinner plate on top of the bundt pan and very quickly flip it over. Thanks to that friend of ours, Baker’s Joy, your cake should just effortlessly pop right out of the pan.

Now comes the trickery. Take your platter, the pretty plate you want to place this rum-filled beauty on, and gently place it on top of the cake. As quickly as a pirate’s sword, flip it over once again. Now the walnuts and glaze are upright and showing off to your guests.

Yo ho yo ho, a pirate’s life for me! Rum soaked, moistness. A proud pirate you will be!