Bakin’ With Bacon: Chocolate fudge bacon cupcakes

Bacon and chocolate go together like pancakes and peanut butter, which is delicious if you have never tried it. Due to this lovely pairing, whenever I see something with chocolate I tend to imagine what it would be like with bacon.

The recipe is a sheet cake recipe, but I wanted to be able to mess around with the bacon throughout the recipe so I went with the cupcake version.

Before you begin making the cake, bake the bacon in the oven for about 15 minutes or until crispy, then crumble it into pieces to be added to the cake mix and frosting later.

Chocolate fudge bacon cupcakes. (CU Independent/Claudia Rebora)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF

Makes 24

Ingredients:
1 cup of water
1 cup of butter
1/4 cup of cocoa
2 cups of flour
2 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 cup of sour cream
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla

1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl.
2. In a saucepan, combine the water, butter, and cocoa and bring it to a boil. Occasionally stir the ingredients in the saucepan to make sure that the flavors are mixed well.
3. After it reaches a boil, remove the saucepan from the heat and combine it with the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.
4. Beat until smooth.
5. Add sour cream, eggs, and vanilla to the mixture and beat well.
6. Pour ingredients into a paper lined or greased cupcake pan (use butter or Pam).
7. Add a pinch of bacon to some of the cupcakes and mix with a spoon.
8. Bake for 25 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking start making a fudge frosting.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of butter
1/4 cup of cocoa
6 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon of coffee crystals
1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon
16 oz. powdered sugar (or less depending on how much frosting you want to make)
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine the butter, cocoas, coffee crystals and milk in a saucepan.
2. Bring to boil and remove from heat.
3. Add the cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla, beating the frosting until it’s smooth and creamy.
4. Frost the ready cupcakes.
5. Sprinkle a pinch of bacon on the frosted cupcakes that do not have bacon inside.

Using my roommates and friends as my official testers, both types of cupcakes were tasted. The four of them who were around by the end of this really liked them, as I did. My roommate liked them better than the muffins, which I would agree with due to the flavors.

The two types of cupcakes gave different types of flavors. The cupcake with the bacon on the inside and fudge frosting on top had the slight taste of bacon, where as the cupcake with the bacon on the frosting had a stronger bacon chocolate taste. I asked the testers which one they liked better, but it turns out they were both good, and you can’t choose just one.

Bacon on the inside or bacon on top, either way you make these chocolate fudge cupcakes is a win. Now impress your friends with something tasty and simple, and enjoy these homemade cupcakes.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Claudia Rebora at [email protected].