Mom's Rum Cake

CAKE:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 box instant vanilla pudding
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup light rum (I think I used Bacardi)
4 eggs

1. Mix all of the ingredients together THOROUGHLY (approx. 4 min.).
2. Grease ENTIRE pan (melt butter and use pastry brush), and then flour it (toss some flour in the bottom, and tip/turn the pan until flour coats it entirely).
3. Place cherries in the pan's base (symmetrically around the inner core); lightly pour/spoon the mix over the cherries to keep them in place. Then pour in the rest of the mix.
4. Bake @ 325 degrees for 1 hour.
5. Cool in pan, and prepare the sauce.

SAUCE:

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup butter

1. Boil 1 minute and then take off heat and stir in 1/4 c. rum.
2. While the cooled cake is still in the pan, spoon mixture over the cake (through the edges and the core); set aside a little of the sauce to top over the final product. It seemed like I had TONS of this sauce, but I just kept going around the edges and dumping more in;once it soaked in, I just kept repeating that around the cake...trust me: you aren't adding too much--the more, the BETTER!
   
3. Cool for 10 more minutes, and tip onto serving plate; top off the cake by pouring the remaining sauce over the top of the cake.

My cake broke a little when I tipped it, however I just placed the broken part back on, and used some sauce to patch the area and meld it back together! :)