Years ago my mother bought some kind of recipe program for our old Tandy computer (Yes, Tandy. Guess how old I am.) This was one of the handful of recipes she tried out, and people went nuts over it. The program's long gone and she never had the chance to teach me how to make the cake, but luckily I was able to dig up the original printouts she made of the recipe. Now I have to make one of these every Christmas or be disowned by half a dozen hungry aunts.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup milk
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
8 oz sour cream
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp rum extract

Caramel Frosting:

3 cups sugar
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup milk
3/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Optional: Buttercream frosting and pecans for decoration

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl combine sour cream and milk; set aside. In a large bowl beat butter until smooth; gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream/milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, and blend well after each addition. Add vanilla and rum extracts and mix well. Pour batter into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

Frosting:

Set aside 1/2 cup of sugar. In a small cooking pot combine remaining 2 1/2 cups sugar and flour, stirring well. Add milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a medium size pot; place over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly with heatproof spatula until sugar melts; sugar will clump, stir until smooth and light golden brown. Remove from heat. Gradually pour 1/4 hot milk mixture into caramelized sugar, stirring constantly; add remaining hot mixture (mixture will lump, but continue stirring until smooth).

Return to heat, cover mixture; cook over low heat 2 minutes. Uncover and cook without stirring, over medium heat until a candy thermometer reaches 238 degrees. Add butter, stirring to blend. Remove from heat and cool without stirring for about an hour. Add vanilla and beat with a spatula or at medium speed of an electric hand mixer until spreading consistency. If a thicker consistency is desired, allow mixture to cool to room temperature or chill in refrigerator.