William Shatner is a multitalented actor, director, author, and recording artist,  He has won several Emmys and starred in many long-running television shows.  He has released a critically acclaimed album of spoken word music. You might not know that.  You probably know him as Captain James Tiberius Kirk, and only as Kirk. 

Shatner was born in Quebec on March 22, 1931.  Trained as a Shakespearean actor, Kirk quickly gained a reputation as a reliable actor who’d take any role – “work equals work,” he said. Ranging from Shakespeare festivals to minor roles in movies and guest star spots on dozens of television shows. The role that would make Shatner a household name and a legendary entertainment icon came finally in 1966 when he was cast in the second pilot episode of a then-unheard of science fiction television series – Star Trek. 

Shatner starred as Captain James Tiberius Kirk – a rough-and-ready, headstrong captain with a penchant for getting into fistfights with oddly colored humanoids.  His overdramatic, idiosyncratic delivery of stilted, awkward dialogue aside, his performance was enthralling – a relatable, hot-headed everyman who was just trying to get the job done. Of course, that job often involved bedding beautiful women of every color imaginable. In fact, Shatner’s Kirk shared the first interracial kiss on United States television with Michelle Nichol’s Lieutenant Uhura.

While Shatner’s star seemed to have set, cult popularity for Trek was slowly building through syndicated rerun. Eventually, when the series was continued in six theatrical feature films, Shatner returned to the limelight and never quite left. Since Star Trek, Shatner has starred as TJ Hooker, attorney Denny Crane, and a fictionalized version of himself as Priceline’s “Negotiator” in a popular series of advertisements. Always huge, always full of boundless energy, always entertaining. Shatner's work has become somewhat of a loving parody of his own larger-than-life persona - going so far as to have the Priceline Negotiator deliver overwrought spoken-words covers of popular songs in an echo of Shatner's own much-criticized "The Transformed Man." 

We propose celebrating his birthday with with what has become Trekkie urban legend - William Shatner's Cappuccino Muffins. This popular recipe which has flooded the internet for years and appeared in several recipe collections was actually discredited by Shatner himself on Fox's The Fran Drescher Show"  in December 2010 when Fran scheduled a cooking demonstration of his famous muffins and Shatner told her that he never head of them. However, the eponymous name persists and they are so exceptional, that in the words of the Borg," Resistance is Futile!"