Bacon Maple Cupcakes

Anyone who has been to Portland in the past ten years has probably heard of Voodoo Doughnuts.  Voodoo Doughnuts has become famous for creating some of the most unusual doughnuts, including the Nyquil Glazed doughnut and the Vanilla Pepto Crushed Tums doughnut.  Needless to say, after health officials found out about these doughnuts they were pulled from the menu.  Now, one of the most popular doughnuts at Voodoo is their Bacon Maple Bar.

Last year when I first came to Portland for my pharmacy school interview, my boyfriend and I made a trip to Voodoo to try some of their famous doughnuts.  Knowing how much my dad loves bacon, I made sure to take a Bacon Maple Bar back to him and he LOVED it! This year when father's day rolled around I knew I wanted to try and recreate the doughnut but in cupcake form!  

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but these cupcakes turned out AMAZING and I'm not even that big of a bacon person! 



Candied Bacon Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
12 slices center-cut bacon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and place a rack on top of the foil that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.  Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.  Dip bacon into the mixture and evenly coating both sides.  Place bacon on the rack and bake for 16 minutes or until the bacon becomes crispy (make sure not to burn the sugar).  Once the bacon has cooled, cut 12 1 inch pieces to top the cupcakes and chop 3/4 cup into very small pieces that will be used in the cupcakes. 

Cupcake Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
5 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp maple extract
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup candied bacon, chopped into very small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, beat sugar, butter, vanilla, and maple extract together with an electric mixer.  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  In a separate small bowl mix together the milk and maple syrup.  Add half of the flour to the sugar mixture followed by half of the milk mixture, mixing after each addition.  Add the rest of the flour and milk mixture to the sugar mixture in the same manner.  Mix in the baking powder and salt.  Finally fold in bacon pieces.  Divide the batter evenly among 12 cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes.

Maple Frosting Ingredients:
6 tbsp maple syrup
4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp maple extract
1/4 tsp salt
3 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk

Beat together maple syrup, butter, vanilla, maple extract and salt in a large bowl.  Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until blended.  Finally beat in milk until frosting is creamy.

To assemble the cupcakes, frost them once cooled and top with 1 inch strip of candied bacon.