Welcome to Day 1 of Bacon Week!

Today I made bacon cupcakes with maple syrup icing with a slightly tweaked recipe from Vanilla Garlic.

Bacon cupcakes are something I’ve been planning on trying out for a long time.  I think part of the reason I’ve been putting it of is that I’m never completely sure if salty and sweet flavors are going to blend very well.  But with Bacon Week upon us, now is naturally the time to give it the old college try.  Plus, I have friends to pawn them off on in case they turned out terribly.

 

I’ve gotta say – while not my favorite representative of the cupcake dessert as a group, these weren’t half bad!  The preparation process didn’t take extra time outside of five minutes to fry up some bacon, and the taste I found pretty appealing.  The texture and the flavor of the cake itself was rather hearty and savory, less light and fluffy like a normal cake would be.  Honestly that’s partially because I just over-baked them; they weren’t burnt, just a little browner than I would have preferred.  Still, they were tastily savory, and the small bits of bacon that get folded in were definitely noticeable.  The bacony flavor didn’t get lost in the rest of the cupcake, which I really enjoyed.

Also, the batter itself was pretty attractive…

 

The icing really did top the cakes off, both literally and flavorally (new word!).  The sweet maple syrup icing was the perfect addition to the savory cakes and blended very well with the bacon flavor.  Without the icing I think these would have tasted more like bacon corn muffins, but with it they really did turn into a sweet post-dinner treat.

Final verdict?  Make these for a new flavor at a party, but not for a consistent dessert, I think.  Something like this draws attention to your culinary prowess (bacon in a cupcake?  Mon dieu!), but in my opinion isn’t something I’d want to eat every day.  And for anyone wondering why I chose to do a non-chocolate bacon cupcake, let me remind you that bacon is the star this week; I was a little concerned that you wouldn’t be able to taste the bacon in a chocolate cupcake.  Have you ever made chocolate bacon cupcakes before?  Am I wrong?

Hope you’re considering joining in for Bacon Week here at n00bcakes!  Be creative; there’s no prejudice here when it comes to bacon.  If you decide to make a bacony post, feel free to let me know by commenting here and I’ll be sure to specially mention your blog post and award you with the Bacon Week participation badge:

 

Nifty, eh?  Thanks to Emily for the super awesome design!

Maple Bacon Cupcake Recipe

Only vaguely accidentally adapted from from Vanilla Garlic.

Yields 9 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tbsp bacon drippings (solidified from being refrigerated)
• 1 egg
• 5 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup diced bacon (4-6 slices)

Instructions:

1. Cook the bacon until crispy.  Put the drippings into the refrigerator to solidify.
2. Beat together the solidified bacon fat and butter until light and fluffy.  Add the brown sugar and maple syrup and beat until combined.
3. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
4. Mix together the flour and baking soda.
5. Add alternating amounts of dry ingredients and the milk, mixing each in individually.
6. Fold in bacon.
7. Divide into 9 cupcake liners in a muffin tin.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, rotating half way through.  You may need a little less time; mine turned out just a little too brown.
9. Let cool on a cooling rack.

Icing Ingredients:

I recommend doubling the below icing recipe.  This just barely covered my 9 cupcakes, and I consider them all under-iced.

• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp maple syrup (VG recipe called for 2…the only reason I used 1 was because that’s all I had left @.@)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• Optional: brown sugar for garnish

Icing Instructions:

1. Beat butter and syrup til combined.
2. Add powdered sugar in batches and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Pipe/spread onto cupcakes.
4. Garnish with brown sugar if you so desire!