Rum Cake

One of my very favorite recipes:


3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 box yellow cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark rum--I like Capt. Morgan Spiced Rum (the good stuff)

Spray and flour a tube pan. Sprinkle pecans over the bottom. Mix all the cake ingredients together and then pour over the top of the pecans. I hit the pan a few times on the counter top to get the air bubbles out of the cake mixture. In other words lift the pan a few inches off the counter top and flop back down on the counter. Do this a few times and air bubbles rise from the cake mixture and pops out. Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees. Check for doneness. Cool..... Transfer into your cake covered container. Prick holes all over the top of the cake. I have a BIG METAL SKEWER STICK that I use for this.

Glaze:1 stick butter
1/4 cut water
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup rum
Put butter, water, and confectiners sugar into a sauce pot. Cook on medium heat and then when it starts to boil time this and cook for 5 minutes. STIRRING CONSTANTLY! Remove from heat and stir in rum. Pour this SLOWLY over the top of the cake and drizzling down the sides.

When I make my glaze I do mine just a LITTLE DIFFERENT than the recipe calls. I put about 1/2 the rum into the start of the cooking. And then add the last half at the very end. A little less STRONG that way. More of the alcohol is cooked off. Still has a GREAT rum flavor though. It is delicious! Enjoy.

1/2 MARATHON FOR DIL --- JENNIFER! WAY TO GO!

Jennifer decided to train for a 1/2 marathon race, which took place on Sunday, Sept. 2nd. This was her first time ever! She's ran in smaller races during the past year or so.... We are so proud of her for the hard work she put into training for this. She finished at 2:02. Chris had a little surprise for her waiting at the finish line! He and Ayden had made a poster for her and on the BACK SIDE he had written Jenn will you marry me again? He had a new diamond ring waiting for her finger when she finished..... They will have been married 10 years this coming January. Jenn's been wanting a new ring for her anniversary! So I know she was SURPRISED!

Transparencies...... Card club theme

Our little card club group meets once a month and we pick a theme to work on for our cards. For Sept. we chose transparencies. This is my card design I came up with using transparencies. PP is by DaisyD's. I added some wide rick-rak as well along the bottom. Autumn Leaves Clear Stamp's flourish was stamped on the front of the transparency and parts were colored in in a marker from the underneath side. Flowers also were stamped on the transparencies and colored too. Then trimmed out and hot glued on to the top side. Rhinestones were then added to the flower centers. Sentiment was stamped on the top side --- using Stazon on ink. I hot glued the transparency to my card base under EACH FLOWER SPOT so it would not show.....This held it fine to the card base. The transparency is folded over the entire card. A fun card to make!

Happy Birthday - Chad

THIS IS A HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARD I MADE FOR MY YOUNGEST SON, CHAD WHO TURNED 32 ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 26TH. PATTERNED PAPER IS BY AROUND THE BLOCK. EMBELLISHMENT IS BY AMERICAN TRADITIONAL. FOAM NUMBERS BY AMERICAN CRAFTS! OFFRAY RIBBON. BAZZILL CARDSTOCK. WE INSERTED A NICE BIG FAT GIFT CARD TO BENNY'S CAR WASH SO HE COULD HAVE HIS CAR WASHED AND WAXED, AND THEN HAVE LOTS OF THE OTHER OIL CHANGES ETC. DONE TOO FOR LOTS OF MONTHS AHEAD TO COME. AND HE GOT SOME CLOTHES TOO WITH IT. WE WENT OUT TO BRUNCH TOO YESTERDAY AT A NEW PLACE CALLED "ANOTHER BROKEN EGG". YUM... EVERYONE LEFT STUFFED!

SURGERY

Goodness I think I've been a little lazy..... I've not posted for a few days on my blog. I've been busy working on my Christmas design layout for Simply Sentiments. doing Christmas and Valentines. I've been adding lots of pretty bright colored felt to my Valentines.... Oh it is yummy! And I must say my little Snowman is such a cutie! Okay that's all the secrets I can give........
Tomorrow morning I'm having surgery on my right foot for a damaged nerve. So I'll be hobbling around for the next few weeks. I don't think I'll be using crutches hopefully. So least it won't be soooo bad. But just having a cast and walking boot is bad enough! Especially living in Louisiana in the hot humid weather!
DH will be back home from his business trip tonight. So that means a late night trip to the airport for retrieving him. Then grabbing a few hours of sleep before going to the hospital for 6:00 AM. I think I'll enjoy the SLEEP tomorrow!
hugs everyone!

I SURVIVED