Bacon.

Last weekend my boyfriend and I were invited to a get-together at his best friend's house. When asked what we could bring, bacon cupcakes were requested. Although it was not a serious request, I had to make it happen. Around Christmas, I had made "Apple Bacon Cheddar" cupcakes, from the Cupcake Project, for my brother. He & his friends loved them; I wasn't a huge fan since I substituted liquid smoke instead of mesquite flour and it had a weird after-taste. Since I didn't love that recipe, I spent days searching for a different bacon cupcake recipe. I found the "Maple Bacon Cupcakes" from Vanilla Garlic, which seemed to have the most positive reviews out of all the bacon cupcake recipes I had found.

I did make some tweaks to the recipe. First, I decided to double the recipe. Second, my boyfriend does not have self-rising flour and we weren't about to buy a bunch of it for one batch of cupcakes. So we used all-purpose. Third, (since AP doesn't have baking powder in it) we reversed the baking powder and baking soda measurements of the recipe. Fourth, I doubled the amount of solidified bacon grease and decreased the amount of butter by 1 TBSP. Fifth, I didn't measure the amount of bacon we put in; boyfriend probably cooked 8-10 slices of slab bacon which certainly made more than the recipe called for. Sixth, while cooking the bacon we added maple syrup and brown sugar to the pan to give it some extra flavor. Seventh, I left boyfriend in charge of measuring the milk so we used a bit more than the recipe called for. Eighth, we did not use the frosting recipe that was provided with the cupcake recipe. Mostly because we didn't have time to make that.

These cupcakes were awesome. Mind-blowingly awesome. Moist, sweet, not too crumbly, and perfectly hinting at salty. The glaze was perfect--not too sweet, not too sticky. The pieces of bacon were like "chocolate-chips of the bacon world". The only way we were told they could be better was if they had more bacon. Side note: despite what boyfriend believed, people didn't seem to enjoy being told there is bacon grease in the cupcakes. I mean, I know they're delicious and it still sounds gross. I advise against telling people that tidbit of information, but it's really up to you.

Maple Bacon Cupcakes
Makes 18

Ingredients:
8 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 tablespoon solidified bacon grease, room temperature
2 eggs  
10 tbsp. brown sugar (technically 5/8 cup; I did a rounded ½ cup)
1 C. Grade B maple syrup (I used half real maple syrup, half pancake syrup)
2.5 cup AP flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
2 shakes from salt shaker
½ C.  plus two tablespoons whole milk (use whole milk; not reduced fat or skim. Buttermilk would probably work. You need the fat for the cake to be delicious).

½+ C. minced bacon, cooked in brown sugar & maple syrup until super crispy; about 8-10 (or more) thick slices. Mince before or after cooking, doesn't matter. Pieces should be chocolate chip sized.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with beautiful, flowery papers your boyfriend picked out.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and bacon grease until light & creamy. Do not lick your fingers after touching the bacon grease. It’s awful. Nasty. Disgusting. Tastes nothing like the deliciousness that is bacon.

Add brown sugar and syrups; beat until totally combined and as fluffy as possible.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition.

In separate medium-sized bowl, mix flour, soda, powder, and salt. Sift if you want; I don’t.

Alternately add dry ingredients and milk into the butter/grease/sugar mixture, ending with dry ingredients. Beat between additions, until incorporated.

Fold in bacon. Mix in some extra syrup, if you want; we did.

Be alarmed that the batter is like cookie dough; do NOT add more liquid, even though you want to.

Taste the deliciousness.

Scoop into cupcake tins; my general rule is two heaping spoons (like you’d use to eat cereal) for one cupcake.

Bake for 18-22 minutes. 20 minutes was perfect for us; your oven may be different.

Let cool.
Frost, ice, glaze, or let boyfriend's mom devour two before any topping is on them. Whichever you want.

 Due to time constraints, I was unable to take a picture with the glaze on them. However, the glaze was a murky brown and hid the wonderful pieces of bacon peeking through.


Maple Glaze
Powdered Sugar
Maple Syrup
Water
Maple Extract

Unfortunately, while making the glaze, I measured nothing. Mostly because we were making it at the time which we should have been at boyfriend's friend's house. Maybe ½ cup of powdered sugar, mixed with 2 teaspoons of extract, two tablespoons of syrup, and enough water to make it thin enough to be glaze-y. Add more or less until you reach your desired consistency, sweetness, and maple-iness. I really wish I measured everything 'cause it was absolutely delicious.

Mocha Frosting and Not Much Else

I'm terrible at blogging. TERRIBLE.
It's been two months since my last post, but I've made probably 5 batches of cupcakes in that time. I just forget to take pictures/write about them. I'd rather eat them. Part of the problem is that I make the cupcakes when I should be doing homework (Senioritis at it's finest). The other part of the problem is that taking pictures of the whole process takes so much time. I don't have four hours to spend photographing flour and butter. I have homework, classes, work and roommates that need the kitchen, all looming over my shoulder. A tiny part of the problem is that I use my phone to take pictures and I really don't want flour, butter, sugar, and whatever else all over my phone.

However, I remembered the blog this time. Today, I'm only focusing on the frosting. Unfortunately, the cupcakes did not turn out well. The frosting, though. OH, the frosting. Delicious, magnificent, award-worthy (according to my untrained-used-to-school-cafeteria-baked-goods palate). Seriously. Best frosting I've ever made. Mocha. I made mocha icing for the trial-run of my mom's birthday cupcakes and it was alright. Thick, sweeeeet, but with a weird texture. I made mocha icing for her actual birthday cupcakes; it was better: creamier, not so sweet, and a better texture. This mocha frosting; absolute best I've made. Partially because it has Kahlua in it, but mostly because it's fantastic. I've discovered the texture issue is due to using cocoa powder instead of real chocolate. Real chocolate = creamy & smooth.

Here's a picture of the beauties:

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients; Enough for 12 cupcakes

• 1 C. butter, softened (salted or unsalted)
• 2 C. powdered sugar
• 3 oz. dark chocolate, melted and cooled*
• 3-4 Tbsp. Kahlua (or coffee liquer or strong brewed coffee)
• 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

1. Beat butter. Beat the hell out of it. I use a whisk and all the arm power I have. You may use a hand mixer/stand mixer if you're lucky enough to have such things. 
2. Add 1 cup of the powered sugar. If using a whisk, do this in parts; if using a mixer, go on slow speed first. Powdered sugar flies everywhere and is especially attracted to black clothing. Beat until totally mixed in.
3. Add some chocolate. Beat until totally incorporated.
4. At this point, alternate between sugar, chocolate, and the liquid of your choice. Always beat well after each addition. Add liquid slooowwwly. Add it too fast, and your frosting will separate and look gross (don't worry, it's still tasty).
5.  Add cinnamon and beat some more. You don't have to add it all. You don't have to put any in. I was making cinnamony-chocolatey cupcakes so I thought it'd go well. It's amazing, I recommend it.
6. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes. Extra can be put into a air-tight container and refrigerated for a few day. Or just eat it. 

Here's another picture, in different lighting, in case you forgot how beautiful the icing is:

*I would like to remind you that this is your frosting. If you don't want it to be super chocolatey, don't put it all in. Same with the coffee  or cinnamon. If your frosting seems too thin or not sweet enough,add some more sugar. Also, I used about 2 oz. salted dark chocolate and 1 oz. regular dark chocolate. It's a nice additional depth of flavor. It's not necessary. It is necessary, however, to use the best chocolate you can afford. I'm not saying use a $35 chocolate bar, but try to splurge for something better than Hershey's.

Test-run of Coffee Cupcakes.

Because this is my first blog post in about 8 years (I used "Xanga" when it was all the rage in middle school), I'm not really sure how this works. So please, bare with me. I apologize in advance if my posts jump around; I tend to type what I'm thinking and my thoughts easily jump from one subject to something seemingly unrelated.
I have recently found a love of baking (helps that I have a kitchen at school this year; was in a regular dorm last year without a kitchen). Baking cupcakes, specifically. It's not so much that cupcakes are the rage (do people still say things are "the rage"?) right now, but rather that they're pre-portioned for you. A whole cake may lead you to believe that two small slices is okay; eat two cupcakes and people start throwing weird looks your way.
Also, this isn't some fancy cupcake blog with all the cameras and gadget and stuff. I'm a college kid-- I don't own any sort of electric beater so I use a whisk and arm power; I am taking pictures with my smartphone (I'm awful with a real camera, even if I did own one); I have "MVP" themed cupcake wrappers because they were the cheapest; I generally do not buy brand name ingredients, unless they're on sale; I use a decorating tip inside of a ziploc baggie to pipe my frosting. My cupcakes are still delicious and I believe they have more love than something made with all those fancy gadgets (though electric beaters would really be nice to own; even the old hand-crank ones would be useful).

Next week is my mom's birthday. I will be making her cupcakes (even thogh she really doesn't like cupcakes). Mostly because my dad volun-told* me to, especially with my new found love of baking cupcakes. I would make a whole cake, but I know how to do cupcakes. I don't want it to turn out awful for my mom's birthday.
Process for deciding the flavor went as follows: Mom does not like overly sweet things; I have no idea what her favorite flavor cake is or if she has one; I don't want to attempt something too crazy and have it fail. Hmmm. She likes peach cobbler- I'll do a peach cupcake... Except that it's December so they wouldn't be fresh peaches and neither my dad or brother would eat them. I can't leave her with a whole batch of cupcakes to eat single-handedly. I don't own molasses to do a gingerbread-ish cake. SHE LOVES COFFEE! I'll definitely do coffee; we all LOVE coffee.... Google Google Google and I found this recipe:Vietnamese Coffee Cupcakes by Chockylit which sounded delicious. Except I don't know how to get Vietnamese Coffee or one of those coffee presses in that post.

Well, I went for it anyway. Here's my version (making 6 cupcakes):

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/4 cup dark brown and 1/4 cup white)
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup flour minus 1.5 Tbsp
• 3/8 tsp. baking powder (slightly less than 1/2)
• A few shakes of salt from small salt-shaker
• 3/16 cup STRONG coffee
• splash of milk
• 1/2 tsp coffee grounds

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners or spray lightly with cooking spray
3. Beat butter until soft.
4. Add sugar-- I first added brown sugar and beat it, then the white and beat it some more.
5. Add egg, beat for 30 seconds
6. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
7. In a measuring cup, mix coffee and milk (should equal 1/4 cup when combined).
8. Alternately add some flour mixture and coffee mixture to the butter mixture; beat until combined. ****Add the coffee too fast will make the batter look funny--"curdled" so do it slowly.
9. Stir in coffee grounds.
10. Taste. (It does have raw egg(s) in it, so taste at your own risk)
11. Scoop into lined/greased cupcake pan--it's only making 6, so I recommend using the middle 6; how full depends on how tall you want the cupcakes; Mine filled a little more than half way.
12. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick/fork/cake tester comes out clean.

I did not, however, use the whipped cream recipe that is with the cupcake recipe. I'm just not a fan of whipped cream.
So, I made a Mocha frosting that I adapted from a previous choclate frosting made with Bailey's Irish Cream (this is enough for frosting to cover 6 cupcakes).

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3 Tbsp butter, room temperature
• Cocoa powder
• STRONG brewed coffee
• coffee grounds (optional)

1. Beat butter until soft and slightly fluffy
2. Beat in 1/4 cup powdered sugar, add some cocoa powder.
3. Slowly add in coffee (again, it will look curdled if put in too fast)
4. Continue adding sugar, cocoa, and coffee (beating well between each addition) until you reach your desired consistency and flavor.
5. Taste.
6. If desired, sprinkle in some coffee grounds. I stirred in about 1 tsp. It gave a nice texture that you barely notice when the frosting is one the cupcake.
7. Taste again.
8. Apply to completely cooled cupcakes with pastry bag or a knife.

Notes:

• I believe brown sugar gives cupcakes a more complex flavor; just like chocolate chip cookies are different than a sugar cookie because of the brown sugar. The original recipe calls for only white sugar so choose whichever you have/want.
• While I list preheating the oven first, it's not necessary; it honestly depends on how long your oven takes to preheat and how long you take to mix everything.
• I do always line my pan before mixing.
• I also always get all of my ingredients ready before starting (that includes before preheating the oven). That way I know I have what I need before I'm halfway into a batter and realize I have no baking powder or something.
• I know the frosting does not have measurements for cocoa, coffee, or coffee grounds. Add as much or as little as you want. You're the one eating it.

All cupcakes should be made with love. If you aren't loving it, it will show up in the results. Enjoy the process; ejnoy the result!