Box Mix Simple Rum Glazed Bundt Cake with Pecans
A box mix turned into a festive cake: spiked with rum and filled with a layer of pecans that could not be easier to bake.
How to make this box mix simple rum glazed bundt cake:
- Pre heat your oven to 325. Butter and flour your bundt pan
- Sprinkle chopped nuts on the bottom of the prepared bundt pan
- Mix the cake mix, Pudding mix, flour, sugar, eggs, canola oil, and rum. Pour the batter over the nuts and bake for 30 minutes.
- Make the glaze while the cake is baking- bring to a boil, water, sugar, butter, salt and rum.
- Once the cake is finished baking, invert onto a cake plate, poke holes all over and pour the hot rum glaze all over the cake.
Ingredients for this recipe:
Why this recipe works:
- Old recipe- It was way too sweet. The glaze from the 1970’s was packed with a heaping 1 cup of sugar. Add in the rum and the glaze is much too sweet. We cut the sugar in half and added 2 more tablespoons of butter.
- We added in more pecans- more nuts gave the box cake a deeper flavor.
- Dark rum AND More rum- rum means smokey taste and it is much more balanced with the reduced sugar.
- The manufacturer’s are making cake boxes 3-4 oz smaller than when we were kids. The classic recipe called for an 18 oz. box of yellow cake mix and my grocery store sells box mixes that are a mere 15.25 oz. I added in an extra 2/3 cup of all purpose flour and 1/4 cup extra sugar and used the large box of Cook & Serve Jell-O pudding mix and not the small.
Pro-tips:
- Do not use Pam Spray to coat your bundt pan: It will pool at the bottom of the pan and leave a burned taste to your batter and the nuts. I used Baker’s Joy Cooking spray. Butter and flour the bundt pan well if you do not have Baker’s Joy.
- Do not over bake the cake. the pecans can dry out and burn.
- When you turn out the cake, place strips of parchment paper around the edges. Once you pour the glaze and it sets, remove the parchment strips for easy clean up.
- I used Duncan Hines yellow cake mix. It was very moist.
- I used Jell-O brand pudding mix.
Equipment needed for this recipe:
- 12 cup bundt pan- buy my favorite here.
- plate stand
- bamboo/wooden cake testers
Other great dessert recipes with nuts:
- Buttery Bourbon Pecan Bars
- One Pan Lemon & Olive Tea Cake
- Candied Hazelnut Affogato
- Banana, Brown Butter & Walnut Monkey Cake with Frosting
- Blackberry Cherry Walnut Crumble
Simple Rum Glazed Bundt Cake with Pecans
A simple box mix recipe elevated with rum, pecans and a moist glaze
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Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 475kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup pecans chopped
- 15.25 oz box yellow cake mix
- 5.1 oz Vanilla Cook & Serve pudding box mix I used Jell-O Brand
- ⅔ cup all purpose flour , plus more for the pan
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs , beaten
- ½ cup water ice cold
- ½ cup canola oil
- ½ cup dark rum
For the glaze
- ¼ lb unsalted butter , PLUS 2 TBSP
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp Kosher salt
- ⅔ cup dark rum
Instructions
- Pre heat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. Sprinkle the 1 cup chopped pecans into the bottom of the pan.
- Mix all the cake ingredients (cake mix through the 1/2 cup dark rum) together, taking care not to over mix- a few lumps are fine. Pour the batter over the nuts. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean. Let the cake rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Invert the cake onto a rimmed cake plate. Poke the cake all over with the bamboo skewer/long toothpick or cake tester.
- While the cake is baking, with about 10 minutes left to bake, melt butter, water, sugar and salt in a small saucepan. Let come to a boil . Whisk frequently for 5 minutes. Remove the glaze from the heat and stir in 2/3 cup dark rum.
- Spoon the hot glaze all over the top and sides of the cake. Serve as is or with ice cream or freshly whipped heavy cream.
Notes
- If you do not want to use rum, you could substitute apple cider although the cake will have an entirely different taste profile. Boil the cider with the other glaze ingredients.
- To store, keep under a glass cake plate dome for several days. To Freeze: Wrap in a double layer of plastic wrap and freeze up to 3 months.
- Make an extra batch of glaze and pour over ice cream when serving the cake for even more rum flavor.
Nutrition
Calories: 475kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 4.9g | Fat: 27.7g | Saturated Fat: 8.3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4.9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10.7g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 87.3mg | Sodium: 396mg | Potassium: 82.4mg | Fiber: 1.4g | Sugar: 30.5g | Vitamin A: 18IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 9.3mg | Iron: 8.8mg
I know what you are thinking: really a box mix cake recipe?
From this food blog?
But I was waxing nostalgia remembering the 1970’s when every mom baked the “Bacardi Rum Cake” during the holidays. It was made with Jell-O instant pudding and yellow box cake mix and a ton of booze. I think I must have ingested a few shots as a child not having any ideates cake was full of liquor.
I wanted to re-create this cake and see if it was as good as I remember.
It is.
It is a fantastic cake.
