Holy Mother of Cupcakes

NO pics so I warn you, these little babies were quick to go!

Maple Bacon Cupcakes!

A friend of mine lives a good couple of months a year in Portland, OR and raves about Maple Bacon Doughnuts at Voodoo Doughnuts. So I started to look for a recipe as he is unable to send to Canada....boo to customs!

I got the recipe from Vanilla Garlic

woooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhooooo these are fantastic, smokey notes of bacon topped off with a tooth achingly sweet maple buttercream. Fantastic, it tastes like Breakfast in a cupcake. All you doubters who gasped at my idea and in the end, begged for the recipe I say to you PSHAW!

Here is the recipe (I doubled her recipe)

Maple Bacon Cupcakes
Should make around 12 normal sized cupcakes
350F oven

What You'll Need...
9 tablespoons of butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon of bacon drippings (left in the fridge to become solid)
2 egg
10 tablespoons of brown sugar
8 tablespoons maple syrup
2 1/2 cup of self rising flour (I used normal and threw in a pince more baking powder)
2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
tiny tiny pinch of kosher salt
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of minced bacon, cooked and drained (I used about 12 pieces)

What You'll Do...
1) Cook some bacon in a fry pan. Reserve the drippings and place in the fridge to solidify. Mince the bacon. The chef should eat whatever is left to assure that the bacon is tasty.
2) Beat the crud out of the butter and solidified bacon fat 'till light and creamy. Add the brown sugar and maple syrup and beat well until combined.
3) Add the eggs and beat until incorporated.
4) Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and powder together.
5) Add some of the flour and mix, then some of the milk, then continue to alternate the dry and wet ingredients, ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in the bacon. Taste and add more maple syrup, flour, or milk if needed for desired taste. Keep in mind the maple frosting is very sweet, and to add in very small increments for alterations as maple syrup in large amounts can break a cake batter.
6) Scoop into cupcake papers and bake at 350 F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Be sure to rotate the pan after the first 15 minutes for even baking.

Maple Syrup Frosting
What You'll Need...
8 tablespoons of butter
4 tablespoons of maple syrup
2 cup of powdered sugar
turbinado sugar (optional, but recommended)
coarse grain sea salt (optional, but recommended)

What You'll Do...
1) Combine the syrup and butter until combined. Add the sugar, a bit at a time, and whip at high speeds until combined. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes. Sprinkle on sea salt and turbinado sugar for decoration and a lot of added flavor.


Next on the agenda, I am going to try with buttermilk instead of regular milk and I will sprinkle some minced bacon on top just for extra bacon'y goodness. I will make these again and not to worry this time I will put down the fork and pick up the camera!

Holy Springtime

Hello Dear Blog,

My have we have grown apart over the past few months.....life just gets that way but I assure you I haven't stopped cooking! I have been a bad daring baker, totally disregarding my monthly duties of the secret challenge....how embarassing! I plead forgiveness, my attempts on my first challenge I assure you were in good intentions. I dutifully curded my lemons and shelled my mini tarts but alas blogger felt my entry was not acceptable as it continued to crash as I posted. I promise you, I tried many times. Stupid me and my busy ways completely swore off blogs for months following this daunting experience.

I promise I will try not to neglect you in the future, I have a lot on the go. First on the chopping block, preserved lemons. These little lovelies have had me entranced the minute I knew they existed! So I will report back as soon as I have successfully completed this. I am actually going to duel myself with two recipes and judge which one wins my heart. Good luck dear lemons, don't let me down.

The Obsession

Sitting at my desk at work, I was reflecting on the holidays and how I regret not taking many (if any!) photos of my lovely desserts, I thought about my obsession... Cookbooks.

I have a friend who works at a publishing company who luckily publishes A LOT of cookbooks. Needless to say I have over 100 cookbooks that constantly tease me with recipe ideas. I must say though as simple as it is, the Joy of Cooking is so fun to use! When I first bought it I had no idea to go about using it, egads.....no pictures?! But how was I to get inspired without wiping the drool off my face and er...page? But in a bind one day when all I had was a few ingredients, I flipped open that index and away we went, The Joy has only let me down once......we are still getting through that awkwardness......

My husband tells me to part with some but they all offer something so unique that I wouldn't know where to begin..... ME thinks he forgets sometime where the culinary concoctions that land on his dinner plate come from. AH well, he has his toys and I have mine.

Now the holidays are over I will post some lovely pictures of some food. BTW, my photography is not where my talents lie. :)

Wow!

Just surfing the net at work during some downtime and I come across this site. How fun to find other people with such a passion for food as myself. I am stoked!

I am a fairly young woman but my friends call me mom because all I do is bake and cook for them as it is my life!

Looking forward to exploring this site further!