Panda Bento & A Super Moist RUM CAKE!

Today we have some cute pandas!  I love how black and white makes the natural colors in food pop!   The darling little panda food picks and reusable plastic food decoration dividers were found on ebay.  Just try searching "Panda Bento" or "Panda food picks" or "Panda food dividers" to find these items. 

I used the Bento box food container to cut the PB&J sandwich to fit perfectly.  Next I added the panda food picks to the fresh strawberries.  The conversation hearts are held by a pink silicon heart cup (purchased on JBOX) and behind that I have two organic yellow carrots purchased at Safeway grocery store.  Lastly, I decorated with the panda food dividers.  I think this turned out cute and it was quick and easy to make. 

Here's a link to the heart cups:
http://www.jbox.com/product/TAM039


Okay, now for some serious yumminess!
I've wanted to make a Rum Cake for the longest time and finally got around to it!  My recipe search resulted in literally dozens of versions of basically the same recipe.  So it's hard to know who to credit the original recipe to.  I wanted the cake to be family friendly and not have that "blow you away" alcohol flavor, so I made some adjustments to the traditional recipes I found.  The resulting cake has all of the wonderful rum flavor you would expect without the strong alcohol kick.  I have to say that this is one of the moistest cakes I've ever made!  Hope you love it too.



Just look at how moist this cake is!


I served this up with some CoolWhip and fresh strawberries.  YUM!  Wish I could share.  This was fantastic with my morning coffee. Grin. Snort. 


Rum Cake ~ The Lemonista's way.

Ingredients:


Cake
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans (optional)
1 18-1/2 ounce yellow cake mix with pudding in the mix.  (I used Pillsbury brand)
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold skim milk or water will work too
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup Myers's Rum Original Dark


Glaze
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Myers's Rum Original Dark


Preparation:
Cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts on bottom of pan. Combine all cake ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes on high with electric mixer. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool in pan.  While cake is cooling in pan, prick the cake with a fork and pour 2/3 of glaze over the cake.  Once cooled, invert on serving plate. Drizzle remaining 1/3 glaze over top of the cake.

Glaze: Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 1 minutes, stirring constantly. Add Rum and boil an additional 4 minutes.  Remove from heat. 
Enjoy!

~The Lemonista