Eggnog Cake

I tried making homemade eggnog two weeks ago, and it did NOT work out too well. It was a very humbling experience, and I don't know that I'll ever try it again. So I ended up with a whole bunch of fine-tasting but terribly-textured eggnog. I didn't want to just throw it out! So I looked for recipes. I found this recipe for eggnog cake, which looked (and was) very easy! It was a great looking cake, and it tasted delicious! It's a layered round cake with a filling and a topping. So if you somehow end up with extra eggnog this year, go ahead and give it a try! I got this recipe off of allrecipes.com. I tweaked it a little, as noted.

 EGGNOG CAKE

Cake:
1 yellow cake mix
2 eggs
2 cups eggnog
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. rum flavored extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour two 8" round cake pans.
Mix all cake ingredients together and divide evenly between the two pans. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes. (I'd check it before then. Mine were a little overdone.) Carefully dump out of pans and cool on wire rack.

Filling:
1 small package instant vanilla pudding
2 cups eggnog
1/2 tsp. rum flavored extract

Mix together, cover with plastic and refrigerate until firm. Spread on the bottom cake layer and top with the other cake layer.

Topping:
1 T. unflavored gelatin
2 T. cold water
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. rum flavored extract

In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over cold water and let sit for five minutes. Stir until completely dissolved. In a large bowl, whip cream until it forms soft peaks. Mix in the gelatin, sugar, salt, and rum extract and whip until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to use. Spread on top and sides of cake.
(this is where I short-cutted. Instead of doing all of this stuff for the topping, I just used Cool Whip and mixed in the rum extract. It might be even better if you follow the recipe, but we really liked it the way we did it.)

Store leftover cake in the refrigerator.