I posted this over in the cupcake forum, but no responses yet, and I'm hoping that I get more advice here

Yesterday, in one of the forums, someone mentioned bacon cupcakes. My interest piqued, I went in search of a recipe. The one I found (and most copied and repeated) was from the Vanilla Garlic blog. I made it, and while it isn't horrible, I'm thinking a few tweaks might be necessary, and I'm hoping for some help from everyone, because you guys all know so much

The cupcake was really crumbly, and had almost a cornmeal consistency, but I'm not sure what to do about that. My husband and I both think that it tastes like it was baked in a dirty pan and we could kind of taste the grease (so next time, I'll make it without the added bacon drippings). I could hardly taste any maple in it, so I think I'll add some imitation maple, as I'm worried that too much maple syrup will break down the batter. Please give me any suggestions!


4 1/2 tablespoons of butter, room temperature
1/2 tablespoon of bacon drippings (left in the fridge to become solid)
1 egg
5 tablespoons of brown sugar
4 tablespoons maple syrup
1 1/4 cup of self rising flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
tiny tiny pinch of kosher salt
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of minced bacon, cooked, drained, and crumbled

Maple Syrup Frosting
4 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 cup of powdered sugar
turbinado sugar (optional, but recommended)
coarse grain sea salt (optional, but recommended)

For mixing directions:

Combine the syrup and butter until combined. Add the sugar, a bit at a time, and whip at high speeds until combined. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes. Sprinkle on sea salt and turbinado sugar for decoration and a lot of added flavor.

I saw this recipe but had just made another recipe using self rising flour and the muffins that I had made came out tasting awful and with a really weird texture, after that experience i didn't want to be so quick to try a recipe with that in it. does anybody know if the self rising flour just has that effect on anything you put it in? It sounds like we had the same issue with texture at least!

Also if anyone has another recipe for Maple bacon cupcakes I've been looking for one as well!

i made some the other day that were amazing! It was pancake cupcakes with maple frosting and bacon crumbles ontop..the frosting was sooo good! I found it on a blog...

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2010/09/16/pancake-cupcakes-maple-bacon-buttercream-frosting/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/maple-french-toast-and-bacon-cupcakes-recipe/index.html

http://alli-n-son.com/2011/06/23/maple-bacon-cupcakes/

Take a looksie at those 2 and see what you think.

I wonder why self raising flour is needed. You have baking powder added as an ingredient as well! I thought that in one cup of self raising flour, it includes 2 tsp baking powder. Isn't 2 1/2 tsp baking powder to only 1 1/4 cup of flour a little much?

Here is another idea I just thought of. Why don't you try your reg. yellow cake (or cup cake) recipe and instead of the sugar in your recipe you add maple granules (they should be replaced in equal amounts as white sugar so you don't have to adjust the liquid). I don't think adding the bacon would affect your recipe negatively and it would be easier to get the texture you want.

In my beer bread recipe, it says to make self rising flour it's 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt per cup of ap flour. But yes, I wondered about the amount of baking powder as well. The only thing I can think of was that more was needed because of the maple syrup. I actually did use a little less baking powder when I made this recipe, about 3/4 tsp instead of the full tsp. I'm thinking that the next time I make them (and yes, there will be a next time, most of my taste testers really enjoyed them), I'm going to cut most of the maple syrup and use maple flavoring instead. Then I should be able to cut the amount of leavening down too... (I hope)

I saw the recipe on the food network site, but there were a lot of negative reviews, and only a couple of good ones, so I chose not to do it. I may try the other recipes though Thanks for your help everyone!

So, I changed a few things in the original recipe, and it came out much better this time, but the cupcake itself is crumbly.

Original recipe:

4 1/2 tablespoons of butter, room temperature
1/2 tablespoon of bacon drippings (left in the fridge to become solid)
1 egg
5 tablespoons of brown sugar
4 tablespoons maple syrup
1 1/4 cup of self rising flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
tiny tiny pinch of kosher salt
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of minced bacon, cooked, drained, and crumbled

Tweaked recipe

4 1/2 TBSP room temp butter
1/2 TBSP solid bacon drippings
1 egg
5 TBSP brown sugar
1 tsp maple flavoring
2/3 cup self rising flour
23 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup bacon

Combine S.R. flour, cake flour, baking soda, and baking powder in bowl and set aside. In another bowl, cream together the bacon drippings and butter, then add brown sugar and continue creaming. Add the egg and maple flavoring and mix to incorporate. Add flour mixture and milk, alternating dry and wet and blend. Gently fold in bacon. Scoop into cupcake tins and bake for 18-22 minutes.

As you can see, by cutting out the maple syrup, I was able to reduce the amount of leavening, and it made the cupcakes taste so much better. Now, my only concern is the crumbliness of the cake. Do you think adding another egg would help? Or, does anyone have any other suggestions? I appreciate the help!

Crumbly generally has to do with improper structure of the cake or not enough levening.

This only calls for 1 egg, so I think you are on the right track wanting to add another egg, since eggs build structure.

I'm off my game when it comes to using SR flour, so I have no tweaks to offer with your powders, except to say I'd leave the recipe as written and try these other things first.

Be careful when measuring your flour, if you are not weighing then sift into your cups, don't scoop or spoon.

I would leave the maple syrup in, it might not bring much to the table in flavor but by removing it you are taking out sugar, which not only helps with sweetness it makes cakes tender and moist. If you take it out you need a replacement sugar to keep the chemistry in check, but I have no idea what the ratios of maple syrup to granulated or brown sugar would be. I think the easiest thing would be to keep the syrup in AND boost the flavor with your maple extract. The small amount of extract shouldn't have any effect to the chemistry but will add flavor. Also, if you are using Aunt Jamima or other processed maple syrups you are not going to get much flavor after baking, so make sure you are using 100% pure maple syrup. It makes a ton of difference.

That's all I can think of for the moment!

Jen

Thanks FromScratch. I cut the maple syrup out, because I felt it was the reason the first recipe required so much baking powder and soda. The leavening was all I could taste the first time I made it. By reducing the syrup, I was able to cut the leavening by half, and the flavor of the cupcake was sooo much better. Maybe I'll try adding a couple of tablespoons of the syrup back in....

Edited to add... I do use real maple syrup, from a local farm...

I make them all the time and they sell really well at Farmers Markets, but I cannot tell my secrets! Sorry! All I can say is that there is real bacon inside the cake, not just the grease from bacon. I fry it crisp and then put it in the batter

I agree with Mimifix. It has way too much leavening, way, way too much. Either cut out the self-rising flour or the leavening added. Personally I would cut the self-rising flour. That way you have more control over how much leavening is added.

More leavening gives you a crumbly, fall apart cupcake. Less leavening, meaning not enough NOT less than what is stated here, gives you a flat dense cupcake. And with that much leavening and only 1 egg and 1 1/4 cup flour (both structure builders in cake) it will not hold up to all the leavening in the batter.

I would not reduce the maple syrup. You only have a little bit of brown sugar. You need the amount of maple syrup to act as the tenderizer in the cake. You are tweaking the wrong ingredients.

And personally I would can the bacon grease and add butter in it's place. That is like putting lard in your cake, ewwww.

Amarylis, I do add bacon, almost a full pound actually. I must have left that part out of the directions. I actually bake my bacon in the oven, on a cooling rack placed in a jellyroll pan so all the grease drips down, and the bacon doesn't sit in it.

MimiFix, I had read that if I added too much maple syrup, it would break down the batter. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that the maple syrup in there was the reason in the original recipe that there was so much leavening. Adding the extra egg did help with the crumbliness though Actually, after adding the egg, the cupcakes peaked incredibly freakishly high. I may cut the leavening even more next time.

LindaF, after the first time I tried the recipe (DH and I thought it tasted like the bottom of a dirty pan because of the bacon drippings), I did try a batch that didn't have any drippings. General concensus from my taste testers was that they couldn't hardly taste the bacon flavor. So, I have added the drippings back in, and that seems to be what everyone loves. I think it's a fine line though between just enough, and too much which gives us that dirty pan taste

Thanks for everyone's suggestions, and since you all think the maple syrup isn't the reason for the leavening, I'll add it back in and see what happens next time!