Banana Rum night!

We brought back a bottle of banana rum from the Bahamas and we didn't know what to do with it so I searched the web for some recipes yesterday. Well, looking at all those recipes got me in the mood to cook! I ended up making a whole Island themed dinner last night...grilled Hawaiian Chicken, Rice pilaf, multigrain bread, fruit salad and of course, Banana creme daiquiris and Banana Rum cake! It was sooo good. I'm actually eating a piece of the leftover cake right now! It has a crust of rum sauce and roasted pecans that is fantastic! I had extra rum sauce left over so I drizzled it on the ice cream...that was really good!

Banana Creme Daiquiris

Banana Rum Cake

Here is the recipe for the Banana Rum Cake. It made a lot of glaze so you could probably cut the glaze recipe in half. I used banana rum wherever it says rum, but you can use regular rum. I also added some cinnamon and sugar to the pecans as I was roasting them.

Ingredients:

For the Dark Rum Glaze: 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter 1/4 cup water 1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup dark rum

For the Cake: 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, toasted 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter 2 cups granulated sugar 1 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar 5 large eggs, at room temp 1 cup mashed, very ripe bananas (about 3 medium bananas) 2 tsps pure vanilla extract 3 tbsps dark rum 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 10-cup tube pan with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle the pecans in the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the mashed bananas, vanilla, and rum. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt over the batter and fold in using a rubber spatula, just until no streaks of flour remain. Fold in the buttermilk. Spoon the batter over the nuts in the pan and spread to the edge of the pan.

To make the glaze: Combine the butter, water, and sugars in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum. Set aside and keep warm.

Bake cake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Use a wooden skewer to poke holes all over the cake and pour 1/4 cup of the warm glaze over the cake. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes more. Place a serving platter over the pan and invert to release the cake onto the platter. Spoon the remaining glaze over the cake, a little at a time, and let stand until the glaze is completely absorbed into the cake. As the glaze hardens, this will encase the cake in a rummy, sugary shell. Let the cake cool completely before cutting into wedges and serving.