Bacon Maple Cupcakes

I dreamed these up a few months ago. Bacon, THE American condiment. I LOVE a good salty/sweet treat and I thought maybe these would have the ultimate broad appeal. I was right, these are by far the most requested cupcake I bake. I've made them for parties mostly, but if I were a ladies who brunch kind of girl, I would TOTALLY make them for that purpose. I swear, these are breakfast in a sweet little cupcake.

I've tweaked the recipe in the last six months or so of making them to its current version. I've made them with box cake mix and with a recipe from scratch. They taste the same, so for sake of ease, I'm giving you the box cake directions. I'm sorry, but I only have the after picture. I promise this is a simple recipe, you really don't need the instructional pictorials.

Maple Bacon Cupcakes

You'll need:

Cake:

French Vanilla Cake Mix (when I use box, I use Betty Crocker....really because of Box Tops program)

canola oil

water

eggs (I think box takes 3 large)

1 tsp cinnamon

Frosting:

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup unsalted butter

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla

1/4-1/2 cup maple syrup

Candied Bacon:

Six slices thick-cut bacon

1/2 cup brown sugar

foil lined half sheet pan

cooling rack

Preheat oven to 350 and bake cake to box directions, with the addition of 1 tsp of cinnamon with the dry ingredients. I use a large ice cream scoop to fill up my cupcake tins, and it must be a little big, because I normally get 18-20 cupcakes out of a batch instead of the 24 the box claims it makes. 

While they are baking, make the frosting. Here's my two cents on frosting: I am not a fan of the buttercream. I don't really know what it is, but when I have a cupcake with a buttercream, it just feels thick and heavy and I apparently like my cupcakes light and airy. I did a lot of testing and found a white icing recipe that I use as a base, but tweak here and there for flavor/texture/consistency. 

Original white icing recipe:

4 cups powdered sugar

1 cup shortening

2 tbsp. water

1 tsp vanilla extract

Especially because this particular cupcake is breakfast inspired, I did want more of a butter flavor and honestly replacing even a little shortening with unsalted butter helps the texture a little. The other trick to consistency is adding corn syrup. You really just add a little at a time until you get the icing where you want it. (a little less for a firmer finish, a little more for a softer, easier to pipe icing)

So back to our Maple Bacon Cupcake....Cream the shortening, butter, water, vanilla extract, and 1/4 cup maple syrup (using the maple instead of corn syrup really made this scream breakfast!) just until combined. Add the powdered sugar and beat it like you mean it...probably about 5 minutes. Check on the consistency here. It should be smooth. Test a little in a piping bag if you need to, if you're having to use a lot of pressure or if it's breaking a bit coming out, scoop it back in the bowl and add more maple syrup. 

BACON BACON BACON....I bake the bacon last. It tends to smoke up the oven a bit, and I don't want the cupcakes to soak in that smoke while they bake. So I bake the bacon while the cupcakes are cooling. Place a cooling rack on a foil lined half sheet or jelly roll pan. Cut six slices of bacon into thirds (you may need more than six slices if you get more than 18 cupcakes out of your batch....or if you tend to snack on bacon while you're working....so just bake the entire package) Lay the bacon on the cooling racks and then sprinkle liberally with brown sugar. Bake at 350 until the fat renders and you have crispy bacon....I'd guess you're looking at 20 minutes minimum. You really just have to keep an eye on them.  

Once the bacon is out of the oven, your cupcakes will be cool enough to frost. I like pretty cupcakes, so I pipe the maple frosting on in a swirl. Once your bacon is cool, top each cupcake with one or two (depending on how much you snacked on) delightfully sweet and crispy slice(s) of bacon heaven...Enjoy!