Runs on Coffee and Cream

September flew by but I'm doing everything I can to enjoy this season. I'm eating all things pumpkin, baking, burning fall scented candles, and snuggling on the couch with kitties.

Sunset down at Pier 4 in Hamilton.

A Pumpkin Spice cupcake to start the day!

I'm so happy I found these chocolates. They were delicious and now they're gone from stores. I can't find them again!

Another little pumpkin for my collection.

I forgot I bought these last year during a sale. The vanilla pumpkin marshmallow candle is easily one of my favourite scents.

New fabric for upcoming shows.

Some easy and delicious cookies.

Getting fancy for a wedding.

How cute is this tiny personal-sized wine bottle?!

September was a great month. Now to see what October holds!

xo Jen

Happy Star Wars Day! To celebrate this year I decided to make some Chewie cupcakes. They're not too difficult to decorate. You just need to have a couple of frosting tips and piping bags... and some muscles because creating furry Wookiee cupcakes is hard on the hands and arms.


I decided to pull out the new Star Wars cupcake liners that I picked up recently and made a batch of chocolate cupcakes.


Then came the fun part - decorating! I used the Wilton grass tip - No. 233 for the chocolate fur. This was the most time consuming part. After that, making the bandolier was fairly straight forward. Just be careful with black food colouring! It gets everywhere and leaves stains.


I had to throw in my Itty Bitty Chewbacca because he's too adorable and fits in perfectly with these yummy cupcakes!


How are you celebrating Star Wars Day today?
xo Jen

Today is the 20th anniversary of Pokémon! How crazy is it that Pokémon has been around for 20 years and it's still going strong with awesome games and toys!?

I was a child of Pokémon. I grew up with it. I had two younger brothers who became obsessed with the card game and the Pokémon handheld games. As for myself, I loved the television show, anything to do with Squirtle, and the console games - Pokémon Snap, Stadium, and Puzzle League. To this day I will pull out Pokémon Snap from time to time to beat it in one sitting and I have a hard time beating Adam in any rounds of Pokémon Puzzle League.


To celebrate Pokémon Day, I made Pokémon starter cupcakes - water, fire, and grass.


The water ones are my favourite, which isn't just because of my love for Squirtle. I love how the little waves turned out!



These are some of our newest perler bead creations too - Squirtle, Charmander, and Bulbasaur. They're the perfect accessory for my cupcake photos.

How are you celebrating Pokémon Day?
xo Jen

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians! It's been a chilly month so far and we've had more rain than sunshine. Which means I've been indoors keeping busy and getting through a lot of TV and books.

Isla and the Happily Ever After

I flew through the third book in the Anna and the French Kiss series, Isla and the Happily Ever After. I really, really enjoyed it. This book takes place back in France, and a little bit in NYC. I really love the descriptive setting Stephanie Perkins writes. I really get a visual of where the characters are. Isla and Josh have become my second favourite couple from this series (Lola and Cricket still top the list). I found Josh to be the most likable male character of the three books. He seemed the most real and his emotions caused emotions in me. There was only a small bit in this book where all three couples collide and reside in the same space. I'm really hoping there's a fourth book planned so we can see what the future holds for these couples.


Kate Spade & Magnolia Bakery Collection

I received the email for this collection this morning and instantly my mouth dropped. I've visited NYC four times so far and I was completely swept away by Magnolia Bakery. Yes, the first time I checked out the bakery was because of its appearance on Sex and The City. But man, their cupcakes are incredible. So sweet and creamy and buttery. Their cupcakes are classic. So to combine that with Kate Spade, you have the sweetest collection in my opinion. I'd be incredibly happy to own anything from this collection. These are some of my favourites though.



What's grabbed your attention lately?
xo Jen

We spent last weekend in Hamilton and it was a great time. We had barbecues, went swimming, paintballing, went shopping at Big B Comics and Cheapies, checked out flea markets, hit up Nations grocery store for lunch and goodies to bring home, and did lots of visiting with family and friends. It was a great way to start July.  







It was a fantastic weekend, though I'm still dealing with purple and yellow bruises from paintball. I'm excited for our next weekend adventure which is camping at Algonquin park!

xo Jen

Last weekend has me excited for other Summer plans we have this year with family and friends. I hope you had a good weekend!
xo Jen

So Halloween is only a couple days away. I'm pretty excited to watch some Halloween movies, hand out candy to the neighbourhood kids, and eat some treats myself. This year we won't be going to a party but that doesn't mean I haven't been eyeing up Halloween recipes and decorations online. Also, I really want a spiderweb dress! It'd be the perfect hostess dress at a Halloween dinner or for an intimate, small party at a house.

If I were to host a Halloween party, these are a few things I'd like to include...

A couple of weeks ago I decided to make cupcakes for my Mom and cousin who were coming to stay with us for a couple of nights. I decided on a spiced pumpkin cupcake recipe since I had a can of pumpkin puree in my cupboard.

I ended up using another Betty Crocker recipe which uses a boxed cake mix as a base. But instead of using a cream cheese frosting, I made a cinnamon buttercream instead.


The cupcakes are made with a yellow cake mix. You make the cupcakes as directed with these changes:
*use 1/2 cup water
*1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (or vegetable oil)
*4 eggs
*1 cup of pumpkin puree
*1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

They turned out amazing! Super moist and very tasty! If you enjoy pumpkin, I recommend this easy recipe. I used Halloween cupcake liners that Sarah had sent me last year. They're adorable! And I like to pretend it's me dressed as a witch on them.


As for the frosting, I just made a basic buttercream but added in 2 teaspoons of cinnamon along with the vanilla, butter, icing sugar, and water. The frosting is so cinnamon-y! And I have leftovers so I need to make some cookies to use the leftover icing for.

I had company up last weekend so I decided to make some cupcakes for dessert. I decided on a recipe I found in my Betty Crocker cupcake book, 'Harvest Apple' cupcakes. You can either make them from scratch or use a box cake mix as the base.

I decided on using a box cake mix. It was super easy! I followed the directions on the box but added in 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to the batter. Then I chopped up Paula Red apples - about 3 cups worth - and added it to the batter. Then baked like normal.

After they cooled, I added some cream cheese frosting and sweet caramel sprinkles that I picked up from the Pampered Chef.


They are tasty!! They have also disappeared very quickly in our house. And to be honest, I didn't 'finely chop' the apples as suggested, but chunked them. This made the cupcakes fun to eat since larger pieces of apple would just pop up in the cupcake.

But of course, the one cupcake I cut open for my picture didn't have as many apple chunks...


I highly recommend making these cupcakes. I know they'll be on my to-make list if I need an easy dessert for something.


xo Jen

I didn't follow the frosting recipe that was given. I made my own buttercream with butter, icing sugar, lime juice, food colouring, and water.


While the cupcakes were cooling, we went out to The Bulk Barn to pick up some things and we found these lime jelly candies which we thought would be perfect for the cupcakes.


The cupcakes were so good and I highly recommend this recipe. I'm interested in trying it with some other flavour combinations and maybe switching up the alcohol or omitting it altogether.

xo Jen