*Bunneh baking for fun; not for sale*
You say “maple bacon” to someone, and it’s pretty likely their eyes will light up and they might even start drooling just a teeny bit. Add “cupcakes” to that, and the look turns to a mix of bewilderment and fascination. Try it. It’s kind of fun.
I started a new job recently, and we had a potluck last week. I, of course, signed up to bring cupcakes. I’ve made these maple bacon cupcakes before – a couple of times, actually – but I kind of wanted to have them again. One of my co-workers pointed out maple is a very “fall flavor,” too, so that decided it. Last time I made these, I only made a short post, so I wanted something a little more in-depth to share the process of creating these with you.
Naturally, there is bacon. I used “real bacon bits” from a bag once, and they were good, but this time I wanted to put in the work. I baked the bacon according to instructions I found online, but I found it took much longer than 10 minutes for mine to get anywhere near done. I put it all in the fridge when I was done (I was making it the day before the cupcakes, because I knew it would be a lengthy and messy process), and the next day I ended up putting it back in the oven for a bit longer to get it crispier.
Once it was super crispy and mostly cooled off, I threw it in the food processor to get bacon sprinkles.
Mmmm, bacon sprinkles…
Most of this bacony goodness does, in fact, go in the batter. Fun story: Boyfriend’s 4-year-old daughter is a very picky eater. She’s the sort who refuses to try new things and says she doesn’t like stuff she’s never tried. Bacon is one of those things. She likes cupcakes, though, so when she asked if she could pick the bacon off the cupcake and then eat it, I said cheerfully, “Of course you can!” She painstakingly removed every crumbly bit of bacon off the frosting, then happily ate the cupcake. Inwardly, I cheered about having tricked her into eating bacon.
Am I a bad role model?
Back to the cupcakes… as a result of the bacon being mixed in, the batter becomes rather thick and gloopy. My blog editor doesn’t believe that “gloopy” is a word and my Mac keeps trying to change it to “gloomy,” but I assure you: this batter was gloopy, and most definitely not gloomy.
*gloop gloop gloop*
While the cupcakes baked, I started on the frosting, but I quickly tired of sifting the powdered sugar, as I always do. One of these days I will have my wits about me and buy a metal sieve to use instead of insisting on these handheld contraptions, but until then, I decided to make Boyfriend do the work.
Cupcakes cooled, maple frosting completed – now it’s time to decorate.
This was my constant view as I sat at my kitchen decorating desk to work:
“Sure you don’t want any help with that?”
One thing I did this time was put mini cupcakes into an empty egg carton. I wanted to send some of the cupcakes along to my old office, but the friend taking them rides the bus to work so I didn’t want to bog her down. I knew mini cupcakes would serve that purpose, but she’s getting quite a small collection of tupperware going from this practice, so I thought I’d make it even easier.
Sure enough, mini cupcakes fit perfectly into an egg carton… um… too perfectly. Once in, I realized getting them out would be difficult without smashing one’s fingers into all the surrounding cupcakes. Solution? Toothpicks! Cupcake Hors d’oeuvres!
