This fall in business school I’m working on a marketing project all about bacon.  This is admittedly not my wheel house because I don’t actually eat bacon, but it has proven to be a great experience.  And yes, I realize I am a weirdo for not eating bacon.

Once we were given the assignment, we were strongly encouraged to test the product ourselves to get better insight into the consumer.  Initially I was not too enthusiastic about the idea, but then I realized I could parle this suggestion into a reason to attempt a baking project with bacon.

For my first try at baking with bacon I decided to stay relatively conservative.  I picked a few different recipes and flavor ideas to settle on a buttermilk cupcake with maple frosting and bacon garnish.  Initially I was going to go in the direction of a spice or pumpkin cupcake, but since the bacon is rich and fatty and maple frosting is pretty sweet, I thought the buttermilk cake would be a nice light compliment to the other components.  Plus I figure it’s a play on breakfast in a cupcake: buttermilk like pancakes, maple like syrup, and bacon like bacon.

These were definitely a crowd pleaser and I even doctored them up to play on the whole pig theme.

Buttermilk Cupcakes with Maple Frosting and Bacon Garnish

Yields 36 cupcakes from Martha, frosting from somewhere I forget

Cake Ingredients

• 3 cups cake flour, (not self-rising)
• 1 1/2 cups AP flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup plus 2 Tbs (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 5 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temp
• 2 cups buttermilk, room temp
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients

• 350g unsalted butter room temp
• 500g powdered sugar
• 5 Tbs Maple Syrup
• 2 Tbs Vanilla
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 lb bacon for garnish

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Place bacon on cooling rack, then place cooling rack on top of a baking sheet.  
3. Sprinkle brown sugar on the bacon and bake for 25 minutes.
4. Once baked, transfer bacon to a layer of paper towels or paper bags to allow the grease to drain.  Once cool, chop the bacon for garnish later.
5. Turn oven down to 350.
6. Combine cake flour, AP flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
7. Cream butter.  Add sugar, beat until fluffy.  Add whole eggs one at a time, then yolks one at a time along with vanilla.
8. Alternate adding parts of the dry mixture with the buttermilk.  Once everything is in the same bowl make sure to scrape the sides and try not to over mix the batter.
9. Pour batter three quarters of the way full in prepared muffin tin.  Bake 20 minutes until tester comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before frosting (or else the frosting will just melt).
10. For the frosting cream the butter with the sugar and add in the syrup, vanilla, and ground ginger.  Beat until light and fluffy.
11. Frost the cupcake in desired fashion and sprinkle with bacon pieces for garnish.