Bacon and Maple Syrup Cupcakes

This week I was so excited to see the return of The Great Sport Relief Bake Off, with various celebrities (attempting to!) bake some rather interesting cakes and puddings, under the watchful eye of Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. 

Last night I was inspired by Emma Freud's 'Bourbon Bacon Chocolate Brownies' that turned out to be rather tasty. I've wanted to experiment with bacon in sweet treats since one of my favourite comedy series, 2 Broke Girls, saw the creation of 'Beer-Batter Maple-Bacon Spring Break Cupcakes'. 

So today I put on my baking apron and experimented with one of Nigella Lawson's recipes, 'Maple Buttercream Cupcakes with Bacon Sprinkles'. I only slightly changed it but ended up creating some pretty delicious 'Bacon and Maple Syrup Cupcakes':

Ingredients (Makes 8 large cupcakes, I made 7 but overfilled them... oops):

For the cupcakes

225g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt
100g soft unsalted butter
100g soft light brown sugar
2 large eggs
8 tbsp natural yoghurt
10 tbsp maple syrup

For the buttercream icing:

125g soft butter
300g icing sugar
6-10 tbsp maple syrup (to taste)

For the bacon sprinkles:

3-5 non-smoked bacon rashers (3 large sized rashers was just enough for 7 cupcakes)
Oil to fry

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºC and place 8 cupcake cases into a deep 12 cup tin.

Fry the bacon in oil. When nice and crispy, put the rashers onto kitchen roll to soak up the oil and leave to cool. Once they are cool to touch, remove any fat and crumble to a pile of crispy yumminess (this can be done whilst they cupcakes are in the oven later!). Try not to eat them.

Mix together the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder in a bowl. In a separate bowl, cream the sugar and butter together (you can use an electric mixer for this, or you can use a fork if the butter is soft enough). 

Beat in one of the eggs with half of the dry ingredients. Add the second egg and the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in the maple syrup and yoghurt.

Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases (these raise quite high so don't fill more then two thirds of the case). Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. I test my cupcakes with a skewer or thin knife, if it comes out clean then they're done! Leave the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack. (I overfilled mine and so some came out quite a funny shape! Nothing a bit of trimming can't mend).

Tip: I had a taste test and they weren't too syrupy so I made a few slits in each with a thin knife and poured in a few drops of the maple syrup. Yum.

Make the buttercream icing by creaming the butter with an electric mixer or fork, before mixing in the maple syrup and icing sugar. You can add more or less syrup to taste. If the icing is too runny add more icing sugar, if it is too thick, add a splash of milk.

Spread the icing onto the (completely!) cooled cupcakes. I use the back of spoon as I think it's look more homemade... and I'm a bit lazy... but you can use a piping bag if you're a bit more fancy them me hehe. Sprinkle with your bacon and voila!

Eat one immediately... and you might want to share some with your family or friends.

Nigella says to eat them on the day they are made but I'm going to risk storing them in an airtight container in the fridge. 

Overall I'm pretty happy with them. They were a little overcooked on the outside as the inside didn't bake fast enough... tell-tale sign of too high a temperature (student oven for you), but they tasted super yummy. I will definitely be adding them to the recipe binder. Let me know if you give them a try and how they turn out!