These Maple Bacon Cupcakes are an extraordinarily sweet and salty treat. Soft maple cupcakes with a hint of bacon topped with maple buttercream frosting, crispy bacon bits and a touch of maple syrup.
MAPLE BACON CUPCAKES
Desserts with bacon started sweeping the food scene a few years ago. It was such a craze that people tried adding bacon to just about every sweet treat. Maple/bacon and chocolate/bacon seemed to be the most popular combinations. Although, maple and bacon has been together for a long long time already.
I used to see people pour maple syrup over bacon strips all the time when I worked at the Cracker Barrel. I honestly thought it was the strangest thing until one day, curiosity took over and I tried it. Not gonna lie, it was interesting and tasty! It could have been just a southern thing but it was tasty nevertheless.
So I can definitely see how maple/bacon desserts became so popular. It’s not just cupcakes that feature that flavor combination, I’ve seen in in doughnuts, muffins, waffles, pancakes and cookies. Maple bacon doughnuts are still on my list to try.
These cupcakes were actually my very first expedience with bacon in dessert. My best friend’s son got married last weekend and his bride asked if I could contribute to their dessert table with some cupcakes. Of course I said “yes!”
They had a sweet, small wedding and everything was fun and non-traditional. So she wanted some kind of unusual cupcakes and decided on maple-bacon. You know the rules, what the bride wants, the bride gets! So I whipped up like five batches of cupcakes to get three perfect ones for them. By the end, I could make these cupcakes with my eyes closed.
I was so nervous to find out how everyone liked them since it was a whole lot of strangers trying my cupcakes. I was very happy to find out the next day that everyone loved them. Very happy!
**UPDATED**
TIPS FOR MAKING THE CUPCAKES
**First and foremost, I want to THANK all of you for your patience in waiting on this recipe to be updated! It’s been quite a long wait and I’m so sorry for taking so long. It was a couple of trial and errors but I went a whole different route with these cupcakes.
The technique using beaten butter and sugar is usually hit and miss for me. It seemed like it was a hit and mix for some of my readers too. I truly apologize for that and not being able to figure out what went wrong with the old recipe.
So I remade these cupcakes using a recipe that I completely trust, that has not failed me yet. I’ve made these cupcakes a couple of times and sent them to work with my husband, for “taste testing.” The report came back very positive each time. No deflating, soft texture, and taste is right on point! I hope you will forgive the length or time it took for me to update this recipe.**
SOME MORE RECIPES TO TRY
Strawberry Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes from Life In The Lofthouse
Nutella Stuffed Raspberry Cupcakes from Handle The Heat
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Maple Bacon Cupcakes
Ingredients
- Cupcakes:
- 4 egg whites room temperature
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup bacon grease grease from cooking bacon in the oven
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 cup low fat buttermilk
- Optional: 1 tsp maple extract
- Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 3 cups powder sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- Topping:
- 1/4 cup maple syrup for topping cupcakes
- 6-8 crispy bacon strips
- 1/4 cup maple syrup for topping frosting
Instructions
- UPDATED recipe:
- Preheat the oven to 350 and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. (I recommend parchment paper liners but you can use any your prefer.)
- Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder together and set aside.
- Combine vegetable oil, bacon grease, vanilla extract, and maple syrup. (And maple extract if using.)
- Make sure your other ingredients are ready.
- In a bowl of an electric mixer (use paddle attachment), beat egg whites for about 30 seconds and slowly start pouring in sugar. Beat for 2-3 minutes, until white and fluffy.
- Start pouring in oil mixture, slowly, as the eggs are still beating on medium-high.
- Lower the speed to low.
- Alternating, add flour mixture and buttermilk in two parts. Mix until just combined. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl and low mix a couple more seconds until incorporated.
- Divide batter among the cupcake cups, filling them about ⅔ of the day. (I recommend using an ice cream scoop so all the cupcakes are even.) Tap the cupcake pan on the counter a couple of times to help air bubbles come up.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes.Take out of the oven and let them rest for 5-10 minutes. Gently take the cupcakes out onto the wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle about a teaspoon of maple syrup on to of each cupcake.
- Cool completely before frosting!
- Frosting:
- Beat softened butter in the electric mixer, on medium-high speed, for about 2 minutes.
- Lower speed to low and carefully mix in powder sugar, salt and maple syrup. Once sugar is incorporated, scrape sides and bottom of the bowl and raise speed to medium. Beat for another 2-3 minutes.
- Transfer frosting into a piping bag with desired tip attached. Pipe cooled cupcakes.
- Crumble crispy bacon and divide it on top of piped cupcakes.
- Drizzle each cupcake with some maple syrup.
Nutrition
Kaylyn says
I do cupcake sales, usually for holidays and special occasions and today I did a Father’s Day sale. I decided to use this as one of my flavours and I am so glad I did! I think I’ve found my new favourite cupcake! I was so nervous about how these were going to turn out but oh my gosh!!! I did add the maple extract to the batter and I think that really helped, but I also added a splash of vanilla and maple extract to the buttercream and it was delicious!
I doubled the recipe and got 30 cupcakes!
LyubaB says
Nice, so glad they turned out well!