Yep, I did it. I put bacon in a cupcake. What is this madness you say? Well my friends, prepare yourselves, this is not one for the calorie conscious!

Bacon cupcakes have been done before, but I thought I’d give them a go as they’d be something different to try. I figured a sweet and salty mix would make sense, I mean, you get bacon, pancakes and maple syrup on all American breakfasts right? (Exhibit A – The Breakfast Club – a myriad of American style breakfasts).

I searched the internet for inspiration and recipes and combined a few together. The first step was to cook the bacon, I coated both sides in brown sugar and grilled until crispy and after setting it aside to cool, I cut the bacon into small chunks.

The cupcake itself is a standard vanilla sponge, I used the Hummingbird Bakery’s recipe for mine. Once I spooned the batter into the cases, I added a sprinkling of the candied bacon and mixed it into the batter. The bacon will sink to the bottom of the cupcake once cooked.

I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the maple syrup buttercream, not too keen now that I’ve tried it, as it’s hard to get right and can be quite runny. I found that adding 4 tablespoons of icing sugar and chilling helped thicken the consistency, but it’s still too runny to hold it’s shape! Next time, I’ll be giving the bacon-infused maple syrup buttercream which Sarah Cupcake used a go.

To finish, I sprinkled the remaining candied bacon on top. I couldn’t resist, so tucked into one as soon as I’d finished decorating. The flavours definitely work well together, it was a shame that the real bacon taste was lost from the bacon topping as the maple syrup flavour was quite strong, but you could still taste bacon from the bacon pieces inside the cupcake. It’s all about trial and error!

I’m off to Duck & Waffle this week and after trying this sweet and salty mix, I’m keen to give their namesake dish a go! Duck & Waffle cupcake anyone…?