Matt's Blog

A Touch of Zest

Matt — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:36:52 +0000

I received this Big Book of Cupcakes for my birthday and tried out my first recipe this past weekend – Orange Rosemary cupcakes. It sounds a little odd, but I love cooking with rosemary so I just had to try it out. I chopped it very fine and it bakes in so the taste is pretty subtle (and is complimented nicely by the grated orange peel). They were fun to make, look delicious, and taste pretty darn good! I have a great microplane, but didn’t have a way to make the peel twists – guess I’ll have to add this zester to my wish list (wink, wink).

Going Once, Going Twice…

Matt — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:19:44 +0000

The Mount Baker Rowing & Sailing Center holds an annual silent auction to raise funds for equipment and program needs, so I offered up some “custom cupcakes” for people to bid on. I wanted to provide samples since the actual auction item would be baked/delivered at a future date, so I made mini gingerbread cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I used this excellent recipe I found online for the cake batter, but stuck with my own (somewhat improvised) cream cheese frosting recipe. I used red candy-coated chocolate balls for the berries and tinted some frosting green to pipe the holly leaves with Wilton Decorating Tip #352.

The Strength to Get Things Done

Matt — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:06:23 +0000

Last night’s Seattle Movember Gala event over in Fremont was a blast! I enjoyed seeing all of the creative costume ideas, especially since I missed out on Halloween this year – even more entertaining being in a room packed with mustaches: some epic and some just downright scary. Here’s my costume, which I fully intent to re-use for Halloween next year:

Congrats to everyone that participated in Movember this year – we had an outstanding season… but a huge pat on the back to all of Microsoft who collectively raised over $100k (USD) across the globe BEFORE any applicable gift matching. Everyone did a phenomenal job this year, and I can’t wait for Movember 2012!

Read more about Microsoft’s efforts here. It’s not to late to contribute: make a donation here.

One Tough Cookie

Matt — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:02:11 +0000

I made mustache gingerbread cookies in honor of the last day of Movember. I’m taking them in to work, but figured they needed some ninjabread men to be better prepared for the fight against cancer!

Mustaches Add a Touch of Class

Matt — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:35:23 +0000

Here I am getting fitted for the tux used in last week’s “Liverace” benefit concert – check out the handsome ‘stache for Movember!

Remember, just like last year you can donate to me to help Microsoft beat Google in raising funds and awareness for men’s health!

These Keys Take the Cake

Matt — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:16:46 +0000

Called ”Mr. Showmanship”, Liberace was well known for bringing a little glitz and glamor to the stage – complete with fancy chandeliers and candelabras atop his pianos. We put together a benefit concert in the style of Liberace in Whitewater, WI last weekend, so I took the opportunity to use this fun little candelabra cake topper from Fred and Friends. Mom helped me bake this two-layer, chocolate half sheet cake which we enjoyed after the show.

It was a Dark ‘N Stormy Night

Matt — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 21:03:26 +0000

Last year’s Learn to Row group from Mount Baker Rowing invited our Team Crazypants crew to their annual Dark ‘N Stormy party. This potluck centers around a tasty drink I had not heard of before, but immediately got me thinking about how I could turn this cocktail recipe into sugary cupcakes. I improvised a batter from scratch based on a few I ideas I found online (see here and here), but the mixture included dark rum, lime juice, and some crystallized ginger (mmm). I then added a little lime juice and [too much] dark rum to my butter cream frosting recipe, along with a dash of black food coloring. I piped this out loosely to form clouds atop the cupcakes, and added a little lightning bolt of yellow molding chocolate I had piped out by hand. These looked AWFUL with gray frosting but tasted delicious – a good way to keep more cupcakes to yourself!

Let Them Eat Wake

Matt — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 02:28:26 +0000

I started rowing this summer, and my group “Team Crazypants” had our very first race today! My sister designed some awesome shirts for us and we had a blast rowing around Lake Union in the Tail of the Lake. After re-rigging the boats back at the boathouse, we all celebrated over some cake. I used a biscotti and Teddy Grahams to represent our opponents who are being tipped over by our wake!

When Life Gives you Lemons, Make Cupcakes!

Matt — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:47:21 +0000

This 4th of July I made berry cupcakes based on Martha Stewart’s recipe. I topped them off with fresh strawberry slices. These reminded me of simple blueberry muffins, but with a creamy marshmallow-like frosting.

I also wanted to capture the statue of liberty in cupcake form, which lead to making lemon meringue cupcakes from scratch to resemble the torch. I loosely based these on another Martha Stewart recipe, though I modified it slightly based on some other tasty looking recipes I found. The cupcakes were filled with lemon curd, topped with a swirl of delicious meringue, then toasted lightly with my new kitchen toy. I wrapped them in a paper crown decoration; although they looked a little cheesy, they tasted amazing!

Honestly, though, I just made these cupcakes to have an excuse to use another Bed Bath and Beyond 20% off coupon on a torch!

The [German Chocolate] Cake is a Lie!

Matt — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 21:01:29 +0000

Today is Frank’s last day with the company… a bummer for all of us here in Seattle, but an excuse to do more baking!

We’ll all be getting together later today to celebrate and wish him farewell with a proper German themed send-off: German beers (for the German who hates beer), German Chocolate Cake (which actually isn’t of German origin), and pretzels (unfortunately, not the kind you’d get in Germany).

The cake took a while to make following a recipe online, but from the scraps I tasted it should be pretty good!