Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum!

            I must say that 99% of my favorite desserts include extreme amounts of chocolate. On a dessert tray, my eyes don’t even register the apple tarts, New York cheesecakes, or crème brulees. Chocolate or bust, I say! So, this recipe is quite a departure from my usual desserts. There can only be one reason why I love this cake so much: RUM.  Rum and I go way back. I can’t pass a See’s candy counter without buying a piece (or three) of rum-chocolate nougat.  I look forward to Haagen-Dazs rum raisin ice cream in the summer, and on my 21^st birthday, my uncle’s gift to me was a big bottle of Bacardi. (My mom asked me to give it back to him, which I did, only to discover later that he had hidden it in my bedroom…so, of course, I kept it squirreled away in a boot in my bedroom closet…I still have that bottle of rum in our pantry). Anyway, rum is delightful, and so is this cake. Better still, it’s low-fat! What more can you ask for in a dessert? Low in fat, soaked in rummy goodness?! Yes, please!

Ingredients:

1 yellow cake mix

½ cup chopped toasted pecans

½ cup milk

¼ cup dark rum

¼ cup canola oil

¼ cup applesauce

2 eggs

Glaze: Combine ½ cup sugar, ¼ cup butter, 2 tbsp. water, 2 tbsp. rum. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook 5 minutes until thickened.

For cake:

Steps:

1.     Grease bundt pan. Add pecans to bottom of pan. In a large bowl, mix cake mix, milk, rum, oil, applesauce and eggs. Pour into pan, and bake at 325 for 45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pan.

2.     Drizzle prepared glaze over cooled cake. Use it all! It will soak into the cake and give the bottom ½ inch a syrupy rum flavor.