Banana Rum Cake

I'd picked up a copy of Jill O'Connor's Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey last year, but hadn't made anything from it. While facing an ongoing overripe banana issue, I grabbed the book and saw a recipe that I realized I needed to make: Bahama Mama Banana Rum Cake. The cake came together just fine, and while it was baking, I made the Dark Rum Glaze to accompany it. The glaze, rich with butter, sugar, and rum, is poured over the warm cake and absorbed into it.

When the cake came out of the oven, I was a little apprehensive. There was a lot of glaze -- almost 2 cups' worth. I brushed a little bit on the cake, then some more. When fretting more about the quantity of glaze, I remembered the name of the book and thought that I might just as well get all the glaze on and in the cake. So I did.

Any misgivings I might have had disappeared the moment I tasted the cake. Surprisingly, despite the quantity of rum in the glaze, the cake isn't boozy at all. And clearly, it is super moist. I especially like the use of chopped pecans coating the bottom of the cake pan, then becoming the top of the cake.