Easy Rum Cake with Yogurt ~

I keep a box of yellow cake mix in my house for times when I need a dessert yet have little time to do something more labor intensive.  And that usually happens for one of my co-worker's Birthday celebrations 

We've all heard of this cake, it's the one that PW made really famous a few years ago stating it was her MIL's Christmas Rum Cake.  Well, no offense to anyone, but I'm sure her MIL's family got it from the 70's, when everyone was making the cake as it appeared on the bottle of Bacardi Rum.  Anyhow, I believe she may have doctored it a little to call it her own.  No harm done, it's a great little cake.

But the night I went to make it, I didn't have a box of pudding mix in the house and decided to embellish this recipe myself, only in a different way.  I was a little nervous doing it, because I had made this cake for my co-workers before and didn't want a disappointing dessert for the Birthday girl.  Well this version didn't disappoint at all, and it's made with yogurt, which could be a little healthier (or not), too!  Here's the recipe.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray a bunt pan with cooking spray.

1 box of yellow cake mix
1 cup of plain yogurt (I used Fage)
1 cup of vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs

1 tsp. almond extract
In a large bowl, add all ingredients.  With a hand mixer, blend for 2 minutes on medium speed.  Pour mixture into the bunt pan and smooth with a spatula.  Place in the oven on a rack in middle of oven.  Let bake for 55-60 minutes, until cake is done.  It should be pulling away from sides and spring back when touched.  

When the cake is baking, more so at the end of the baking time, I made the rum glaze.  

1&1/2 sticks of butter

1/4 cup water

1 cup of sugar

3/4 cup dark rum

Add the butter to a medium sauce pan and on medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the water and sugar and stir.  Bring to a boil, while stirring and cook for 5 minutes.  You can't leave it by itself, as you want to make a caramel sauce/glaze.  Let it cook for the full 5 minutes, keeping the heat on medium high to high.  I cook it on high, while I continually stir with a spatula.  Turn off heat and add rum, continually stirring as well, as it will steam and puff up.  Turn the heat back on for 1 minute and the glaze with be thin and caramel colored.

Remove cake from oven and poke a few holes all over the bottom of the cake, with a cake tester, or a long toothpick.  Then spoon some of the glaze all over the cake, even down the sides and middle tubular part.  Wait five minutes and invert cake onto a cake plate.  With the cake tester or long toothpick, poke lots of hole all over the top and top sides of cake.  Spoon the rest of the glaze over the cake, letting it run down the sides.

Let cake cool and marinate for a couple of hours before serving.