Martha Cupcake Challenge #27- Maple (with a twist)

So, due to requests from Jason's coworkers, I decided the next challenge would be Maple cupcakes, but with a little twist: bacon! Bacon cupcakes are the trend now, but I made them years ago. I used Martha's Maple cupcakes as the base, then adjusted them for my purposes. These came out great!

First, I made candied bacon, which is just bacon, baked with brown sugar until caramelized and crispy. However, I used maple sugar, to intensify the maple flavor in the cupcakes. These smelled amazing! I did sample a bite or two, and they were sweet and salty and crunchy and yum! The important thing is to save some of the bacon fat to use in the cupcakes.


So, making the cupcakes, I added the bacon fat, and used half brown sugar and half maple syrup, instead of all maple syrup as the sweetener. Then I folded in the bacon crumbles, so each cupcake is filled with crunchy morsels.
They baked up great, smelled amazing! Then I used a maple buttercream, which was a bit too thick, I should have thinned it a bit, but it was the perfect amount for 24 cupcakes. I topped each cupcake with a piece of candied bacon, for that added crunch, and to identify what's inside.


I get the craze with bacon, and paired with maple, it's really good, but I don't personally care for the combo. However, what the crowd demands, they get!