French Toast Cupcakes

Since forever I have been a huge fan of pancakes, waffles and French toast, I like to put them in the same category as they are all breakfast foods that I just cannot say no to. I can remember when I was a teenager being called 'weird' because I liked to eat my French toast with fried bacon and grilled banana all doused in maple syrup. 'Ew' they said 'sweet and savoury don't go together' they said. Was I ahead of my time? Yes. Or rather, I had taste like the Americans -who are well known for such "weird" concoctions as peanut butter and jelly (jam) and peanut butter and chocolate. I say they're geniuses!  I'll take my bacon and smother it in maple syrup any day!

When I popped in to Miss Melicious to pick up my book (which Missy signed for me -woo!) and of course pick up a few cupcakes to eat, I asked Missy if I could re-create one of her cupcakes and share the recipe on my blog. I asked which recipe was okay to use and she just said "pick one!" Eeeeee! How exciting! So I took my book home and it was a tricky tricky choice, out of crazy cool flavours like watermelon and pumpkin pie I finally chose French Toast Cupcakes as I just knew I had to try them. If you want to get your hands on a copy of Miss Melicious Cupcakes (which I highly recommend if you're crazy on cupcakes like me) then head to all good book stores (and the Warehouse) and pick up a copy. It's a lovely hard back with beautiful photos and easy to follow instructions.

The recipe is easy to follow and I promise I am not sugar coating this (heh, sugar analogy there) but these cupcakes were PERFECT! Soft fluffy cake, light airy sweet icing topped with sweet and salty bacon oozing with flavour. It may seem weird to you but my initial reaction when I try baking this good in my house is to find a way to get them out of my house. If I ate another one I knew there was no stopping me, soon I'd be the size of a house! I managed to get Mr S to take them to work and they were a hit there too!

Surprisingly, I screwed up part of this recipe. Actually, is that surprising? Seems like something dumb I would do. Anyway, I did accidentally get the quantities wrong on the Candied Bacon Bits. You see, bacon is hard to come by in this house as it is very highly regarded. Bacon is the holy grail. We love us some bacon. You getting the picture? So I managed to save two pieces of bacon and as you'll see the recipe calls for 12! I thought I'd just change up the sugar and pepper quantities but really I just halved it, making for some very sweet and peppery bacon bits. Luckily, they still tasted absolutely amazing on the cupcakes -thank goodness for that. Wouldn't want to waste any precious bacon around here!

French Toast Cupcakes
Recipe recreated with permission from Miss Melicious Cupcakes
Makes 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients:
115g Butter, melted then cooled
1 C White Sugar
1 1/2 C Plain Flour
1 1/2 t Baking Powder
1/4 t Salt
1 t Nutmeg
1/2 t Cinnamon
3/4 C Milk
1/2 t Vanilla Bean Paste
3 Eggs, separated

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 fan forced).
• Line a cupcake pan with liners.
• Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl.
• In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg  and cinnamon.
• In a small bowl, whisk milk and vanilla.
• Add egg yolks to butter mixture one at a time.
• Add dry ingredients in thirds alternately with milk. Begin and end with dry ingredients. Mix until well incorporated.
• Beat egg whites in a clean dry bowl until soft peaks form and  then fold into batter.
• Fill liners three-quarters full and bake for 18-22 minutes or until tops spring back when touched gently.
• Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely before frosting. Decorate with Candied Bacon Bits.

Maple Buttercream
125g Butter, softened
4 C Icing Sugar, sifted
1 T Milk
2 T Maple Syrup

• Beat butter and slowly add icing sugar until crumbly.
• Slowly add milk and maple syrup until the desired consistency is reached. Add more milk if required.
• Beat for 3-5 minutes until light, fluffy and creamy, but still firm enough to pipe.

Candied Bacon Bits
1/3 C Packed Brown Sugar
2 t Ground Black Pepper
12 Slices Bacon, cut into strips

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (180 fan-forced).
• Line a rimmed baking tray with tin foil (I used baking paper as I ran out of foil) and place a wire cooling rack inside.
• Combine sugar and pepper. Add bacon strips and toss in mixture.
• Lay strips of bacon on the wire rack in one layer and sprinkle with leftover sugar mixture.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until browned.
• Cool before finely chopping and sprinkling on cupcakes.
• Keeps for 5-7 days in an airtight container in the fridge.

To assemble, make sure the cupcakes and bacon bits are completely cool then pipe (or spread with knife) the icing onto cupcakes and sprinkle on some delicious bacon bits. I used a large round tip to pipe the icing. Be sure to keep an eye out for some cupcake decorating tutorials coming up on my blog soon, you may just recognise the cupcakes used!