Last Minute Mabel ...

Why, oh why do I wait until the last minute to make birthday cards? I still owe my dad one, his birthday was in February, let's not go there (bad daughter....B A D daughter).

Jonathan and I were hosting a birthday party for a friend today down at our local pub, which, by the way, offers the % discount off the entire party's bill = to however many years old the birthday person is (up to $100 off). Our friend turned 71...so YEAH BABY...that was a 71% discount off our party's bill! WOOT!

So, this morning, before we left for the pub...I baked a SCRUMPTIOUS chocolate cake, made her card, showered and got dressed...all in the span of like 2 hours. So much for a lazy Sunday morning!

Here is the cake: (photo taken with my phone, so it's bleah quality) I decorated it by placing it on a hand-punched doily out of Spring green cardstock (with the aid of my Martha Stewart circle punch), and decorated it with little plastic "cupcake" flower toppers. It's not fancy, but it looked cute...and more importantly, it tasted AMAZING.

Today is your LUCKY day! I'm gonna post the recipe...because I'm just awesome like that!

 Torrey's Super Moist Oh-So-Easy Chocolate Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

1 box chocolate cake mix (any kind)

4 eggs

3/4 cup water

1 cup sour cream (or can use 1 cup Greek yogurt)

1 small box chocolate pudding-dry (I used instant)

1/4 cup oil (canola, vegetable, or corn)

3/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Frosting:

1 container dark chocolate frosting

1  container cream cheese frosting

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F (~175 C). Mix all cake ingredients together (except chocolate chips if using them) either by hand or with mixer until well-blended. Then add choc. chips. Pour into greased Bundt pan and bake for 50-60 min. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan to complete cooling. Frost when cool

For Frosting: Combine prepared chocolate and cream cheese frostings in mixing bowl. Using hand mixer, beat frostings together until thoroughly mixed and fluffy. Frostings will about double in volume when whipped this way! You'll probably have leftover frosting. I did. It won't be leftover for very long...I'm just sayin' is all.

This cake is SOOOOoooooo moist. It won't leave any crumbs. And, it's SO choco-licious... mmmmmmmmm.

Here is the card I made.

Side note: Pat likes cats. Pat REALLY likes cats. A LOT. She has like 7 of them (or was it 12?) Anyway...she has a LOT of cats.

First off, I did a color wash with watercolors on watercolor paper. After it was dry I stamped the cat image on and fussy cut it out. Then I enhanced the color with my Prismacolor pencils and added clear lacquer to the main lines of the image. I used some of the leftover color-washed paper for the bottom of the card.

  

I LOVE this stamp, don't you? Actually, I love ALL of Michael's stamps. His "cloisonné" line of stamps is AWESOME. Check them out HERE

Ingredients:
Cloisonné Cat stamp - Michael Strong
Watercolor- Prang
Prismacolor colored pencils
Bubble edge punch- Martha Stewart
organza ribbon
clear lacquer
cardstock and watercolor paper
black stamping ink - Memento