BACON CUPCAKES WITH MAPLE ICING

This morning I was wide awake at 6:30 am and not able to get back to sleep. As usual my mind turned to food. I was thinking about bacon then donuts and thought about the bacon donuts that Voodoo donuts and several other establishments make, then thought about cupcakes and Hey... wonder if I can make bacon cupcakes and how do I make maple icing.. see how my mind works. So since I had nothing to do today and having a few slices of bacon left I thought I'd see if all this thinking would work out. And YES! I'm sure this isn't original but it is for me, this is my version.

about 18 cupcakes

Bacon cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

4-5 slices of bacon fried crisp, cooled and finely chopped-set aside

1 3/4 C cake flour ( I only had 3/4C cake flour so used 1C all purpose flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
1/2 C salted butter-softened
1 Tbsp bacon drippings (this gives a little more bacon flavor plus moisture and also the sweet and salty quality too the cake).
1 C sugar
1/2C milk
1/2tsp vanilla
4 egg whites

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
Alternate adding the f lour mixture and milk to the butter mixture. Beat the batter until smooth after each addition of the flour and milk.
Beat in the vanilla.
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form; fold into the batter.
Fold in the chopped bacon.
Scoop into cupcake tins
Bake 25-30 minutes or until done.
Cool completely

Maple butter cream icing
1/2 C softened butter
1/2 tsp maple extract
2 C confectioners sugar
pure maple syrup

Cream the butter and maple extract. Add the sugar a little at a time alternating with maple syrup until desired consistency . Beat until smooth.

Frost the cupcakes as desired.

I would refrigerate the cupcakes only because it has the bacon in it, bring to room temperature before serving.

I gave a few to our neighbor and taste testers Jen and Tod. The look on Tod's face was priceless when I told him it was bacon cupcake with maple icing. I'm not really sure his thoughts about it, Jen thought it was good in a weird way. She said it was that sweet and salty combination. Then too, they ate it cold rather than at room temperature so it may not have given them the true taste of the bacon and maple. Charlie of course said it was OK, his standard answer to anything I make good or bad. Guess that's the safe way to go.
So try it, I think it's pretty good. I don't know if it would work as a cake unless it was a theme cake but as cupcakes I think they work pretty well.