Matt's Blog

I made Double Rainbow cupcakes for my Double Rainbow themed birthday party this past weekend and was happy with the results – thanks to Andrew and Renee for helping me get these done!

The cupcakes were made with a simple white cake batter split into six bowls to be colored with food dye.  We made some with layers of colors and others just splashed in tie-dye style.  I topped them off with a piped mound of vanilla buttercream frosting and a few sprinkles (for the “other” rainbow).

These looked really cool on the multi-tier cupcake display with all the candles in place, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of them all set up!  I had an awesome time at my favorite neighborhood bar (The Bottleneck Lounge) with good food and great friends – thanks to all who made it out the other night to celebrate with me!

Happy Birthday to Frank, who is the only German I know of that doesn’t care much for beer!  We always give him a hard time at work and poke fun by offering him mojitos, so I figured these Mojito cupcakes were appropriate:

The recipe roughly follows the Betty Crocker recipe, though I topped it with vanilla/lime flavored buttercream frosting instead of whipped cream.

In a pleasant surprise last night, I discovered I am all out of my Movember thank-you notes (pictured above)!  That means last month was a very successful fundraiser, thanks to all of you!  I apologize to anyone who donated in the last few days as I’ll need to make another batch of notes before I can get yours in the mail.

If you, too, would like one of these limited edition thank-you notes, stop by my Movember site to make a last minute contribution.  I’ve decided to keep my moustache for a few more days because I’m only $311 away from my goal which would mean keeping it for December!  I’ll see where we’re at this weekend before I pull out the razor.

Our team, The MOXstaches, raised over $3000 last month, helping bring the Microsoft total above $33,000!  Excellent work and special thanks to all my Mo Bros and Mo Sistas at work and those supporting our team!

Here’s a shot of the Moustache Cake I made for our party yesterday:

I’ve been sporting the “creepy guy” moustache all week – I can’t wait for it to start filling in so it’s not in this awkward limbo state!  Next week is going to be our first big push for fundraising at work.  It’ll be exciting to see everyone sporting their Mo’s together and generating buzz around the office.  Click here if you’d like to get in on the action and support our cause!

Last night I made my first ever batch of sugar cookies!  They turned out kind of lousy, so next time I’ll be prepared with mom’s classic recipe.  I used a moustache-shaped cookie cutter and I thought they turned out pretty cute:

My car recently hit the 100,000 mile mark and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity (read: excuse) to throw a party!  We had everything, from drinks like Sidecars and Irish Car Bombs to desserts like homemade (and quite delicious if I do say so myself) Rocky Road ice cream.  I was also excited to bake another cake.

Here are some shots of the odometer before and after hitting 100,000 miles, as well as a picture of my car-themed chocolate cake: