Cupcakes Made For Man

Alright. Before you judge me, listen. I was not soley responsible for merging meat and and delightful puff of sugar and butter. It was not my fault. Although, I will take credit for the compliments.... ;)

Niki (my nanny-e) decided that we needed to do something special for Lauren. No me, but her friend Lauren who often comes over to play. Lauren has a small obsession with bacon. She's definitely a unique child. She would eat bacon and drink the juice 24/7 if her parents would let her. Like I said, unique. These are kind words. So Niki wanted to make her bacon cupcakes. I scrawled at the idea. (And no, I don't no what scrawled means) But I strongly reprimanded her on the basics of cupcake art. Meat=men and does not have anything to do with pastries of any kind, unless it is bread dough, then, pizza is permitted to have meat resting on top of it. After this whole event, I finally broke down, due to the opportunity for uniqueness.

I threw a few ingredients together, what I thought would work well with the meaty flavor of bacon. Still, confused and bothered at the merger between bacon and sugar.

For the batter? (I'm crying as I say this) That runny brown liquid....is...bacon fat. So against everything I believe in, but I new the flavor would be extrordinary...fatness always tends to taste extrordinary.

*Shrieking at high pitches* Do you see that piece of bacon sticking out through that batter?

And yet, something so disturbingly nasty in nature, looked beautiful. I could'nt WAIT for someone to tast one...cause I was most definitely not going to!

Maple Brown Sugar Bacon Cupcakes

Items Needed:

• 1 Pillsbury White Cake Mix
• Oil, water, and eggs called for on the box
• 3 Tablespoons Bacon Drippings (and pretend like this isn't part of the recipe)
• 8 Slices of crumbled bacon
• 2 sticks of butter
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Drizzle of Maple Syrup (Or the imitation kind...that's all I found, it's all about innovation!)
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (and more for garnish)

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Make the white cake mix as directed. Crumble in 4 slices of cooked bacon. Pour in bacon drippings.
3. Bake for 22-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
4. Let cool on wire racks.
5. To make the icing, combine softened butter, vanilla, half of the milk, and 4 cups of powdered sugar. Little by little add the rest of the powdered sugar and the rest of the milk. Add milk if to stiff.
6. Once combined, add a drizzle of maple syrup, and the brown sugar.
7. Top cupcakes with icing, garnish with the other 4 slices of bacon and brown sugar.

Watch people as the confusion and delight starts to mount on their faces and they bite into the cupcake, and discover, they are the most delicious confusion ever to behold them. Bravo risk taker, bravo.