Apple Pancake Cupcakes with Maple Bacon Frosting

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10/23/2010

Apple Pancake Cupcakes with Maple Bacon Frosting

I still have some of the apples from the farm, the supply never ends no matter how many apple things I make. The bowl of apples on my table literally looks as full as it when we first got them. It's some sort of apple wizardry or apple mating ...

So when someone suggested that I make an apple cake with maple and bacon I started searching the internet for recipes right away. Bacon-in-everything is a popular trend right now (with items ranging from delicious to ridiculous) so there were a ton of recipes for me to sift through and combine.

This is what I came up with: homemade apple pancake batter baked in muffin tins and topped with sweet and salty maple bacon icing.

These are way faster to make than cupcakes, and would be perfect for brunch. No standing over the stove making pancakes while everyone sits around eating, just pull them out of the oven and everyone can eat at once.

The batter is just a pancake batter with some grated apple stirred into it, the cupcakes bake up moist and fluffy in about 12 minutes.

Note the difference in yolks between the last farmer's market egg and my grocery store eggs.

I played around with a few toppings with maple and bacon before I got a combination that I really liked. To get enough maple flavor in the icing without making the icing overly sweet it really helps to use a combination of maple syrup and maple extract. Bacon bits are mixed into the icing and then sprinkled on top as well.

To make the icing really fluffy I whipped the butter with the whisk attachment on my mixer before adding sugar, and then whipped it for 20-30 seconds on high after each addition of powdered sugar was mixed in.

For piping, I used a disposable plastic piping bag (a plastic freezer bag would work as well) and cut the tip open wide enough so that the bacon bits could pipe without catching.

To make these even simpler for a week day breakfast or snack you can just skip the icing. A dab of butter, some maple syrup and a sprinkle of bacon is delicious.

Apple Pancake Cupcakes

(adapted from The Brown Eyed Baker)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1 whole apple grated (don't worry about peeling it)
1½ cups milk (I used skim)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1. preheat your oven to 400

2. Whisk together the dry ingredients and then stir in the grated apple. Set aside

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the two eggs until slightly foamy then whisk in the milk

4. Stir in the melted butter. Then gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined

5. thoroughly spray your muffins tins!!! I wouldn't recommend using muffin/cupcake liners because they love to stick to them. Fill the tins up (this batter makes 12, I filled my tins up almost to the top)

6. Bake for 11-13 minutes until the cupcakes have puffed up and are firm to the touch.

Maple Bacon Frosting

This made enough frosting for 10 of the cupcakes. I didn't want left over frosting, plus the 10 cupcakes got a lot of frosting on them. If you want to use a lot on all the muffins then double the recipe

1/2 cup butter softened

1 cup icing/powdered sugar

1tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp scant maple extract

4 strips of bacon

1. Cook bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels and then crumble

2. whip the butter with a whisk attachment on high for a few minutes

3. lower the speed and add 1/3 of the sugar. Once it is mixed it turn the speed back to high for 30 seconds

4. repeat step two with the rest of the sugar

5. mix in the maple syrup and maple extract

6. stir in 2/3 of the bacon bits (reserve the rest for sprinkling on top)

7. pipe or spread icing on pancake cupcakes!

Posted at 02:33 PM in Brunch, Cupcakes | Permalink

Tags: apple cake, apple cupcakes, bacon, bacon icing, cupcakes, maple bacon icing, pancake cupcakes

Comments

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Oh my!! Everything you post makes me happy and hungry. I've baconated one of my cookies...bacon is indeed everywhere. I actually was intrigued by that bacon, pb deal...the deep-fried part, not so much. Any who, these look absolutely lovely and I really appreciate that by putting them in muffin tins you get to socialize!

Posted by: Jen | 10/23/2010 at 04:54 PM

Am flirting with idea of making these

Posted by: Leannefordy | 10/24/2010 at 11:23 AM

YUM! What a genius idea!

Posted by: MP | 10/24/2010 at 12:45 PM

this sounds so yummy!!!!! the perfect tiny breakfast muffins :) i think ill have to make these soon.

Posted by: Cherryredstudio1.blogspot.com | 10/24/2010 at 04:28 PM

I've made pancakes so many times but I've never thought to bake them as cupcakes or muffins. These look excellent!

Posted by: LimeCake - A food life for one | 10/25/2010 at 01:39 AM

oh, what a great blog! everything here looks so delicious!

have a nice time,
Paula

Posted by: My_Delicious | 10/25/2010 at 06:16 AM

Ahhh oh my god those look AMAZING! What a perfect breakfast...

Posted by: Lesley Howard | 10/25/2010 at 11:31 AM

oh my goodness! I never thought bacon on a cupcake would sound so good!

I was a greek goddess a few years ago, and it was awesome! So fun too. But then again, I love anything gold and sparkly!

Posted by: Jdavissquared.blogspot.com | 10/25/2010 at 12:11 PM

my guy would love these so much. i never would have thought of using muffin tins. brilliant!

Posted by: Rigel_p | 10/25/2010 at 02:03 PM

*FAINTS*

Posted by: Mylifeunderthebus | 10/25/2010 at 08:48 PM

These sound delicious! I would never have thought to use bacon in icing! :)

Posted by: www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmamS6mCfL64QGfs2JmQumTEbIPMBPqnQg | 10/26/2010 at 02:04 AM

I just had to see who "someone" was, LOL. Looks fantastic, the muffin tin idea is interesting!

Posted by: Lonesome Road Studio | 10/26/2010 at 10:38 AM

I made them for breakfast to rave reviews from the husband and kid! I put the link to your blog on fb, to spread the happiness!

Posted by: Jen | 10/26/2010 at 04:22 PM

Thanks Jen! They went over really well at my house too, def on my make-again list

Posted by: Stephanie | 10/27/2010 at 07:39 AM

Good gosh those sound delicious. The last photo seriously made my mouth water. It was like Pavlov's Bell. (sp?)

Posted by: Waterstonejewelry.blogspot.com | 10/28/2010 at 04:50 AM

Those look awesome! I'll have to try these, I've been looking for a cupcake recipe with bacon and this looks like the one!

Posted by: Eyecandey | 10/28/2010 at 06:35 AM

I tried the frosting your way, but didn't pipe it because the proportions just seemed off. In the end I used the more typical 1 lb. of icing sugar to 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup butter with the maple syrup and maple extract. It was a supreme hit with my large family and maple sap harvesters. Thanks!

Posted by: Kelli | 05/19/2011 at 08:33 PM

The thing that's kinda neat is that a similar filling is used for a Viet sweet dumpling in which the skin is made of sticky rice. Called banh troi nuoc, the dumplings are poached and then simmered briefly in ginger syrup. Look for that recipe in Asian Dumplings in the "Sweet Treasures" chapter.

this isn't quite banh bot loc. The version I have in Asian Dumplings is what you're thinking of, filled with pork and shrimp but it's not in the banana leaf wrapper. They're poached as half-moons -- a naked version, and served with the garnishes. Lordy, I'm hungry!

Posted by: cheap louis vuitton | 09/28/2011 at 11:57 PM

tonight some friends of mine are having an "ultimate hors dourves showdown" and the secret ingredient has to be bacon. sort of like recreation of iron chef america. anyways, these look absolutely amazing! and what a creative idea. Thank you for sharing! I think i will make these for the showdown.

Posted by: bridgit | 10/12/2011 at 11:46 AM