Recipe: Visions of Sugarplums Cake

VISIONS OF SUGARPLUMS CAKE

FOR THE CAKE:
1 cup whole almonds or pecan halves
3 extra large bananas
4 eggs at room temp.
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup dark rum
1 tsp. coconut extract
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 can pineapple tidbits or sm. chunks
1 (9 oz.) pkg. pitted dates, chopped
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped almonds or pecans
1 cup flaked sweetened coconut
FOR THE GLAZE:
4 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. honey
4 tbsp. rum

TO PREPARE THE CAKE:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10 inch tube pan. Arrange whole nuts evenly on bottom.

In a blender, puree bananas (1 1/2 cups).

In large bowl of electric mixer, beat eggs well. Add sugar and oil. Beat for 1 minute. Mix in pureed bananas, rum and extract.

In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; stir until evenly mixed. Add to egg mixture. Beat until batter is smooth, stir in remaining cake ingredients. Pour batter into prepared tube pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60-65 minutes or until done. Set pan on wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Loosen cake from sides with a spatula; invert cake onto rack to cool completely.

TO PREPARE THE GLAZE:
In saucepan, combine all ingredients for glaze except rum. Heat until sugar dissolves and glaze is smooth. Remove from heat and add rum.

Spoon glaze over cooled cake until cake absorbs as much as possible.