Bacon Today reader Becca R. shares with us her recipe for Maple Bacon Cupcakes. If you make these let us know how they turn out and take some photos to share with the world!
Bacon Maple Cupcakes
Ingredients
* 4 1/2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
* 1/2 tablespoon bacon drippings (left in the fridge to become solid)
* 1 egg
* 5 tablespoons brown sugar
* 4 tablespoons maple syrup
* 1 1/4 cups self rising flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* tiny tiny pinch kosher salt
* 1/4 cup milk
* 1/4 cup of minced bacon, cooked and drained
What you’ll do–
* 1) Cook some bacon in a fry pan (about 6 thick strips). Reserve the drippings and place in the fridge to solidify. Mince 1/4 a cup of 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 egg 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
Ingredients
* 4 tablespoons of butter.
* 2 tablespoons of maple syrup.
* 1 cup of powdered sugar.
* turbinado sugar (optional, but recommended).
* coarse grain sea salt (optional, but recommended).
What You’ll Do –
* 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.
(add some crumbled BACON TOO!)
October 19th, 2009 at 11:11 am
This person stole this recipe from Vanilla Garlic!!
October 20th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
no, sorry this person did not, this person got this recipe from a good friend, this person also has no idea what vanilla garlic is. nor does her friend
October 24th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I made them! Check them out here.
http://ladybutcher.blogspot.com/2009/10/beer-bikes-birthday-and-bacon-maple.html
If you try it, double the recipe for the cupcakes and triple for the icing, because it only makes about 10 (and frosts about 7…)
Be careful not to add too much maple syrup because it really will break the batter.
Happy baconing!!
October 28th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Becca, I made these and they came out just great! Photos and description of my adventure are here… http://www.hedonistreview.com I also followed Lady’s recommendation and doubled the cakes and tripled the frosting. Still not quite enough frosting if you want them to be decadent (and what Hedonist doesn’t want that?). Maybe double the frosting for a single batch of cakes? Really lovely though, thank you!
November 10th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
http://www.vanillagarlic.com/2007/05/maple-bacon-cupcakes-with-maple.html
The recipe is pretty much verbatim. It’s not to say that you (or your source) necessarily got it directly from this Vanilla Garlic blog, but it is the same recipe, word for word.
November 10th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
that is to say, Becca (or her source) not Mr. B
November 13th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I realize it’s just a phrase and not a genuine dietary restriction, but does anybody else find it funny that the recipe for bacon cupcakes calls for “kosher” salt?
November 18th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Ben, it is funny! But in a sort of a “that’s wrong” way. I used sea salt and it worked just fine
November 18th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
@df – while I agree that this is the same as the recipe posted on vanilla garlic, that post was published with a CC license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
which, in a nutshell, says you are free to copy/distribute this wherever, but you may not alter it [so it must be "word for word"] OTOH, the one part that “Becca R.” failed to include was attribution to the original author.
ironically, by pointing this out, you (and I) have made the attribution clear
Tom
p.s., one other thing: the above CC license includes a “non-commercial” clause, so you’re not allowed to profit it by it. Since I don’t see any overt/click-thru advertising on this site, I think BT is pretty much in the clear on this
November 19th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Thanks to all who have identified the (true?) source of this recipe. At BT, we make every attempt to be fair and ethical, and we call out original sources whenever we know them. But… we are not journalists, and as such we don’t do extensive (or any) fact checking. If a reader sends us something interesting about bacon, we generally write it up, since what we care about here is bacon.
And really, does anything other than bacon really matter?
Thanks for reading!
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Lots of Good information in your posting, I bookmarked your blog post so I can visit again in the near future, Thanks, Palma Bleyer
March 23rd, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Who cares where the recipe came from? Geesh! It’s only cupcakes…
April 13th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I just made these cupcakes, great recipe! I did double the batter and quadrople the frosting. I also added 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and about 1 TBS more of maple syrup to the frosting. It made 24 cupcakes.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
I didn’t have self-rising flour, so I used a substitute posted on Joy of baking, essentially regular flour with baking powder added. The batter tasted so delicious I couldn’t wait for the cupcakes. Then they turned out tasting a little like bacon and a lot like bacon powder. I’m going to get some self rising flour at the store and make them again. Just a tip to anyone out there, don’t do what I did.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I mean baking powder, not bacon powder. Heh.
May 10th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Mmmmm…bacon powder…
http://www.baconfreak.com/boss-hogs-bacon-flavored-seasoning.html
May 29th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
This recipe is ingenious. I thank all the bacon bakers of the world.
June 17th, 2010 at 10:58 am
i just made these today. the frosting is wonderful, and the batter seems like it somewhere between pancake batter and cornbread. i rewrote the recipe for my self and added a little powder sugar to thicken the frosting and took out all the salt. much better now
July 1st, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I used sea salt and it worked just fine
July 5th, 2010 at 12:07 am
I made these this evening, and they tasted nothing like bacon. They actually tasted like really good cornbread. Also the frosting, while maple-y and delicious, was really thick. Next time, I will be thinning out the frosting somehow.
July 24th, 2010 at 12:13 am
I made these for my love. We found that they were more muffin-like…I’d even with agree with the cornbread comments. The bacon flavor was really not present. Next time, I will reduce the temp. 350 produced well-done cakes by 15 min. in my oven.
Boy, that frosting is good. I thinned it with about a teaspoon of milk. My husband’s comment “More bacon!” (He means that in life in general.
August 8th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
This… sounds… amazing. I love you Bacontoday.com
August 28th, 2010 at 4:43 am
I first made these cupcakes exactly as written and found that there was a significant “baking soda” aftertaste. Nasty. I then added all-purpose flour and buttermilk to try to save the batch but it didn’t help much. I also added a bit of vanilla and more syrup. Still, nothing could overcome the baking soda thing. SUGGESTIONS: Use all-purpose flour instead of self-rising. It doesn’t make sense to use the self-rising when the recipe also calls for so much baking soda and baking powder. Also, to get a more “present” maple taste, try reducing your syrup over low heat to half. I started with a half cup of syrup, then reduced down to get the 4 TBSP, and the maple flavor was delicious. But… IMHO, this recipe has some problems and there are better ones out there. I’m going back to my tried-and-true version.