1. preheat oven to 325 degrees, spray or grease cake pan (I used a Bundt cake pan but use your preference.
2. in a large bowl, add cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, oil, rum (I used Malibu coconut rum but use your preference), extract of your choice and beat until smooth. add batter into prepared cake pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. the batter is thin and may look skimpy for the size of the pan, but the cake will rise dramatically while baking.
3. bake for approx. 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. cool cake in pan on a wire rack.
4. when the cake has about 10-15 minutes left to back, start making rum sauce.

**RUM SAUCE- use caution, focus, and take small children out of the kitchen because the mixture is very hot and flammable!**
5. in a medium high-sided sauce pan, add butter and heat until melted.
6. add the sugar and water, bring to a boil. allow to boil rapidly for 4-5 minutes; whisk consistently so it doesn't burn. mixture should become white, frothy, and fluffy looking.
7. remove from heat and with caution, add rum while whisking because the sauce will bubble up.
8. return pan to the heat for 1 minute, whisking constantly, this helps burn off some of the raw alcohol taste.
9. transfer the sauce to a 2 cup glass measuring cup, you should have about 2 cups of sauce.
10. poke holes with a fork all over the bottom of the cake (which becomes the top when you invert it to remove from pan). I stabbed the cake about 75 times.
11. slowly pour 1 cup of the sauce over the surface so that it soaks in; set remaining sauce aside. Allow cake t rest for 1 hour.
12. Invert cake onto a cake stand or serving platter, stab cake again and pour remaining sauce over the cake, some will pool down the sides, its unavoidable and okay.
13. allow cake to rest 1-2 hours to absorb the sauce before serving. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 10 days...DO NOT REFRIGERATE.