Maple Bacon Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
I had no time to bake a Birthday treat for my baking buddy in time for her Birthday this year so I thought I would bake something really yummy this weekend for her. I decided to make some maple bacon cupcakes frosted with maple cream cheese frosting. My goal was to make a cupcakes that tasted just like pancakes and bacon with syrup. This batter was based off the recipe from the book Baked Explorations (a Brooklyn based bakery). I skipped breakfast today and starting cooking some bacon with my lovely bacon press (if you love bacon, I suggest you pick one of these up). After it cooled, I cut up the strips into little pieces and began to work on the batter. I used grade B maple syrup in the batter and then when it was all done I tossed the bacon with some flour (this prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the cupcake) and folded them in. I filled the muffin tins with batter and placed them in the oven. Total baking time was about 22 minutes. Our kitchen smelled wicked awesome while these were baking. I sampled them warm from the oven and they were great. Then one more after it had completely cooled and it was even better. Later in the evening, after I finished cooking beef barley stew, I went ahead and made the frosting. Some maple syrup, butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and serious whipping action and I reached the perfect flavor to top them off. All of the flavors work so well together in this cupcake and I am in love with this recipe since I am a huge fan of pancakes and bacon.
