Sweet & Salty.

I like bacon.  I haven't quite fallen in step with the current "bacon is the ultimate food and should be eaten with everything" trend, but I like bacon.  I do, however, feel strongly about chocolate, which is the ultimate food.*  When I can't decide between something sweet or something salty, I prefer simply to add chocolate to salty snacks.  Chocolate and pretzels.  Chocolate and popcorn.  Chocolate and Ritz crackers (it works... I promise).   So I wasn't going to pass up a recipe for chocolate bacon cupcakes. And what goes better with bacon than maple syrup and with chocolate than buttercream frosting? Well, possibly cold milk, but maple buttercream frosting is what I made.

Also, I did not even know these existed until now.

But dipping them in really good chocolate is better, no?

There were a few things I changed from the original recipes to get the cupcakes and frosting just right and make the process a bit easier:

1) Microwaved the bacon.  It's easier to crumble if the bacon is more dehydrated, and the flavor once in the cupcakes is still good.  You just want crispier bits that aren't too chewy.** 

2) Used 4 (yes, 4) cups of sifted powdered sugar instead of the 3/4 cup called for in the recipe. Because a nearly 1:1 butter-to-sugar ratio plus extra liquid in a buttercream frosting makes no sense at all.  I also used a different process than the one described in the recipe, which I'll explain below.

3) Used a little less than a 1/4 tsp maple flavoring along with the maple syrup.  If you use Grade B syrup, the flavor is more intense and you don't have to use flavoring, but I only had Grade A, and good maple syrup can be expensive.***

See here for more information about 

Grade A versus Grade B maple syrup.

Now for cupcake making time!

First, I made coffee.**** I don't have a picture of this because I had to make it earlier to cool enough, but you can make the coffee however is easiest for you.  Just make sure it's strong and not hot when added to the batter.  Another thing I don't have a picture of is bringing the eggs and other cold ingredients (besides the buttermilk) to room temperature.  This helps prevent over mixing.  (If you want to bring eggs to room temp quickly, you can place them in a bowl of lukewarm water.)

After attending to those steps, I microwaved the bacon.  I did two batches, putting 6-7 slices on a paper towel on a microwave-safe place and microwaving ~1 minute per slice.  Check on them occasionally, because some microwaves run hot.  Crispy is great, but burnt might not be as palatable!  I crumbled the cooked bacon and set it aside.  I saved about two crumbled slices for topping the cupcakes.

After preheating the oven, I combined all dry ingredients for the cupcakes in a large bowl, then made a well in the center and added the wet ingredients. After stirring everything together only a few times, I added the bacon and continued stirring until all ingredients were just combined.  Over mixing batter yields less fluffy, chewier cupcakes.

Then I took a ladle and spooned the batter into prepared cupcake tins (the recipe made enough for roughly 30 cupcakes) until they were about 2/3 full and baked for 20 minutes, until the tops were springy and a fork came out clean.  I used the convection oven, so it took less time than it might have otherwise. To prevent the cupcakes from falling, try not to open the oven at least until toward the end of the baking time, and if you aren't sure if cupcakes are done, err on the side of less done. As long as they don't wobble like pudding, they will continue to cook slightly from the residual heat of the pan.

To get the cupcakes out, wait until they're cool enough to handle and run a knife along the edges of the cups. They should then be easy to gently lift out by the tops. Or you can then just say "To heck with it," and flip them over onto the counter.

On to the frosting.  Before starting, I sifted 4 cups of powdered sugar.  I have made buttercream with unsifted sugar and it works, but sifting does make it easier to tell when the frosting has reached the right consistency and make it easier to pipe if you're going that route.

Then instead of just dumping all the ingredients together and mixing, I used the more traditional method for making buttercream frosting and whipped the butter first until light and fluffy.  Then I added powdered sugar and syrup alternately until I reached a thick buttercream texture.  I ended up using about 3/4 cup of syrup and all the sugar. If you reach the desired consistency before that and the maple flavor isn't evident, you can do what I did and add flavoring along with the vanilla and salt.  Do add the vanilla before you finish adding sugar, because it will affect the consistency as well.

Once the frosting was thick and rather stiff, I put it into a piping bag and piped it onto the cupcakes.  It isn't really possible for one person to take pictures of this process, but this tutorial is very helpful.  I don't make cupcakes often and am no professional decorator, so they aren't perfect, but I'm getting better at it with practice!  I used a large open star tip for these.

Finally, I sprinkled the spare bacon crumbles on the tops, and the cupcakes were ready to take for the 4th of July:

DEEMS THIS RECIPE:

Somewhat easier than pie but worth the effort.

*You could argue this point, but you'd be wrong.

**Honestly, bacon bits might work just as well.  I just had a package of bacon on hand.

***Just for one batch of cupcakes I wasn't going to go buy another bottle, but in the future I will probably just buy Grade B instead, and I would have preferred that option.

****For completely separate reasons, most of my cooking begins with this step.