Runs on Coffee and Cream

October is here and the weather is perfect! I'm back to wearing oversized sweaters, chunky knit socks, and drinking all the hot drinks my body can handle. I love this time of year.

This cool weather makes me want to bake. I have a huge list of things I want to try baking this month and I hope I have time to make most of them.

One thing I had an urge to make was fall-decorated sugar cookies. Now, I'm not a huge fan of sugar cookies. They are an absolute pain to make and they're just not my favourite cookie to eat. Adam, however, loves them and they are fun to decorate. So I usually make them once or twice a year. I had some fall sprinkles that I wanted to use so I made a batch of sugar cookies.


The icing and sprinkles were definitely the best part of these cookies. I almost didn't want to eat them because they looked so cute.


Sugar cookie dough works for me sometimes and other times it frustrates me. Because it worked so well this time, I might try my hand at another batch closer to Christmas. Plus, that means I can buy more sprinkles!



What do you plan on baking in October?
xo Jen

My phone camera made the pink much darker... but it looks so pretty against the sprinkles.

I'm sure you'll see these sprinkles again since I have so much spring inspiration right now and want to bake everything I can!

I hope your week is treating you well!
xo Jen

Life has been a whirlwind of emotions lately; working a lot, sewing like crazy, getting excited for spring, getting frustrated having to shovel a ton of snow. I'm trying to stay organized, de-stressed, and positive but I've had some exhausting days. I enjoy these posts for the fact that I can look back at the good moments that I've had, no matter how small they might have been.

I picked this mug up at Chapters and I love it! Honestly, the entire Dayna Lee collection is amazing. Check it out!

Logan assumes us cleaning the bookshelf means he can investigate all areas he can fit.

I had a brutal cold for a few days a little while ago. I spent the weekend reading and relaxing to get myself better.

My craft room assistant.

Seymore can't handle me sewing for hours on end. He bugs me until I give him a solid 10 minutes of attention.

I have made a promise to myself to start doing yoga regularly again. It helps with my stress and I love how I feel afterwards.

Some days require sprinkles.

A mall date with Adam included a passionfruit bubble tea with strawberry popping bobas.

Every time there's sunshine I try my best to bask in it. It makes these long winters bearable.

Let's hope March turns out to be great and spring shows up early!
xo Jen

Leading up to Valentine's Day I made a couple of Valentine treats for Adam. First up was his request, butter spritz cookies. They always turn out adorable and the recipe I use makes a ton of them (close to 100 little cookies) but it's incredibly time consuming and a bit of a pain to load the cookie press. So I had Adam help me with them. We ended up using the last bit of dough to make some heart cookie cutter cookies too.



Next up was a recipe I wanted to make. After having so much success with the donut recipe I used recently, I wanted to make some glazed donuts with sprinkles. On Sally's Baking Addiction she recommends double dipping the donuts into the glaze which gave a good thick coating to the donuts. I followed her recipe here.

Glaze Ingredients

1/4 cup milk
2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
sprinkles

Directions:

1. Combine glaze ingredients in a small pot over low heat.

2. Whisk until the glaze is smooth.

3. Drop each donut into glaze and place on wire rack. Once you've dipped all the donuts, dip them again starting from the first one.

4. Add sprinkles!

I absolutely love how they turned out. And they didn't last too long either since donuts for breakfast or dessert are hard to pass up.



With Valentine's Day over, I have my mind set on spring baking which definitely includes some Easter ideas. So get ready for Mini Eggs treats!

xo Jen

As usual I did a bunch of holiday-themed baking in the first half of the month. It gives me an excuse to pull out my pink food colouring and heart sprinkles.

First up was pink chocolate chip cookies.



I have one more thing to bake this weekend but it actually won't be Valentine-themed...

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!
xo Jen

January is almost over and I'm really not sure where the month went. It's been a really snowy month. Like, tons of snow. Winter caught up and we've been shoveling every couple of days. It's been a work out. The weather has kept us inside though. Snuggling, reading, watching TV and movies... it's been nice.

Seymore is especially fond of the new bed we bought him on boxing day. It's a small dog bed which fits him perfectly.


I read through the first Lumberjanes trade this month, along with a few other books. I have the second Lumberjanes volume in my to-read pile still too.



I found Star Wars: The Force Awakens Pop! Vinyls really cheap and just had to pick them all up!


I've been adding to my sprinkle collection as I come up with more recipes I want to try.


I couldn't pass up these Valentines and stickers when I was out shopping last week.

 
I also bought a few other things this month: my first Tsum Tsum pack, a ceramic dish, and two DS games.


January has been a good start to 2016. It's been snowy and I haven't left the house much, but it's been nice and relaxing.

How's January been for you?
xo Jen

I love baking. I took cake decorating classes a few years ago and I'm always up for baking a batch of cookies or frosting some pretty cupcakes. It's one of my top passions in life.

This year I want to grow and challenge myself as a baker. I want to try new recipes and techniques. I want to experiment more with flavours and decorating styles. Lately I've found myself getting lost on Instagram and Pinterest looking at cake and cookie photos.

In the spirit of Jurassic World being released this month, I decided to make another dinosaur-themed recipe. Not long ago I spotted adorable dinosaur sprinkles at The Bulk Barn and I knew they had chocolate rocks there too.

So for something different than cake or cookies, I decided to make a pan of brownies. The recipe I used turned out OK but honestly, brownie box mix is always so good in comparison to from scratch recipes. I was actually planning on buying a brownie mix to achieve the ooey-gooey brownies they make but I forgot to buy a box while at the store. So I made brownies from scratch, which Adam calls chocolate brownie-cake because it's very cakey.

I whipped up some easy chocolate buttercream - butter, cocoa powder, icing sugar and a bit of water. Then onto the decorations! I'm not going to lie, these brownies are almost gone. They've been the perfect sweet treat this week.




I hope you're having a great weekend!
xo Jen

  


After these little donuts were in the house for a couple of days, we both decided that these really did taste like cake donuts. The glaze kept them moist and added just enough sweetness.

I highly recommend giving this recipe a try! I know I'm going to try this recipe again and use a different cake mix. I may have a themed-donut idea in my head...

xo Jen