More and more people seem to be following gluten-free diets these days. Sometimes this is out of necessity (due to things like celiac or other intolerances), sometimes it's out of the belief that wheat- or grain-free diets are inherently healthier than diets that include these starches. Regardless of the underlying reasons, the result is that it's becoming increasingly likely that a given group of people will include someone who can't (or is chosing not to) eat wheat.

Given that, I felt that it might make sense to make a few gluten-free goodies to send along with the regular cupcakes for the Kidlet's class. I've generally had good luck with America's Test Kitchen recipes, so I turned to them for a good gluten-free cupcake option.

These cupcakes were okay, but somewhat underwhelming. It's difficult to evaluate fairly though because I don't like confetti cupcakes to begin with. The Kidlet says that she ranks the cupcakes themselves about the same as the non-gluten-free ones that she made from a box mix (although she didn't really care for the vegan icing that I topped them with). TF tried one and said that they were just so-so. Given that, I'll probably try a different gluten-free recipe next time.

I do appreciate that the folks at ATK explained their recipe though. They noted that since GF flour doesn't absorb fat as readily as wheat flour, they found that they needed to swap out the butter for oil and reduce the quantity in order to avoid greasy cupcakes. Then, to restore some of the flavour and richess lost by removing the butter, they added a bit of white chocolate and sour cream. The xanthan gum is needed to help the cupcakes rise in the absence of gluten. My GF flour blend already contained xanthan gum, so I didn't bother going out and getting extra, but I think I probably should have since much cupcakes did not rise very well.

This all sounded good in theory, but I wasn't super impressed with the final result. And while some of that may be down to the missing xanthan gum and the resulting lack of rising, I don't think a lighter texture would have solved everything. As noted, I'll probably be looking for a different GF recipe next time. But at least this one did the job on this particular occasion.

Gluten-Free Confetti Cupcakes

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 115g white chocolate
• 6 Tbsp. oil
• 185g gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. sour cream
• 1/4 c. rainbow sprinkles

Frosting¹

• 3 c. vanilla frosting
• 3 Tbsp. rainbow sprinkles

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F) and add paper or foil liners to your muffin tin.
2. Heat oil and white chocolate gently, stirring often, until melted and smooth (3-5 30-second bursts in microwave). Set aside to cool.
3. Sift baking powder, baking soda, and xanthan gum into GF flour.
4. Mix in salt.
5. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with vanilla.
6. Whisk sugar into egg mixture.
7. Beat cooled chocolate mixture into eggs.
8. Stir in sour cream.
9. Add dry ingredients to wet and whisk until smooth.
10. Mix in sprinkles.
11. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin.
12. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for ~20 minutes.
13. Let cool in tin for ~10 minutes.
14. Turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.
15. Meanwhile, make the frosting.
16. Stir sprinkles into frosting.
17. Once the cupcakes are completely cool, decorate with frosting as desired.

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¹ I didn't want to have to make three separate batches of icing, so I skipped the vanilla confetti icing for my GF cupcakes and just used some of the vegan chocolate frosting on them instead. Perhaps not as gastronomically harmonious, but it saved me a bunch of effort, ingredients, and dishes, so that worked for me! ^Back

Although I've learned a bit more about vegan baking over the years, I still don't have that much experience with it. I'm happy enough to replace eggs with flax "eggs" in pancake and muffin batters. And milk is usually easy enough to replace since there are now a plethora of non-dairy milks easily available at the grocery store. Sugar is fine as long as you're careful about how it's processed. And butter can usually be swapped out with some other fat, although you may have to make some adjustments to compensate for lost flavour and water content. But, despite knowing a lot of the theory of how to "veganize" a recipe, I haven't had much occasion to actually do it. So I was happy to have a well-tested vegan cupcake available when I wanted to send some goodies into the Kidlet's class for their Hallowe'en celebration.

I was really happy with how these cupcakes turned out! They were pleasingly chocolate-y and they rose very well. TF felt that they had a very slightly "off" flavour, but I couldn't detect it.

All that being said, they were a bit annoying to make. Aside from requiring the use of three separate bowls and needing to make an aquafaba-based whipped egg white analogue, I just found the batter very loose and runny and difficult to work with. It had the consistency of heavy cream and was basically impossible to scoop with a spoon the way I normally do for cupcakes. I ended up making a huge mess trying. I think I'll just decant the batter into a large measuring cup and pour it into the liners next time!

I was worried that the fact that it was so loose meant that something had gone wrong. But the cupcakes still seem to have baked up fine. Whether this was because that's how it was supposed to be or that I just got lucky and they worked out in spite of the extremely thin batter, I'm not sure. But either way, I got some great cupcakes out of it!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

• 190g all-purpose flour
• 1 c. organic sugar
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. water
• 1/2 c. Dutched (alkalized) cocoa powder
• 30g dark chocolate¹
• 1/4 c. coconut oil
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. aquafaba
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• Vegan Chocolate Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a muffin tin with papers.
2. Combine flour, sugar, and salt.
3. Sift in baking powder and baking soda.
4. In a separate bowl, combine water, cocoa powder, chocolate, coconut oil, and vanilla.
5. Heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool.
6. Add cream of tartar to aquafaba and beat until stiff peaks form (3-9 minutes on high speed).
7. Add chocolate mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine.
8. Add ~1/3 of the whipped aquafaba and stir it in to loosen the batter.
9. Add the remaining aquafaba and gently fold it in until just combined.
10. Pour the mixture into the prepared muffin tin.
11. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15-20 minutes.
12. Let cupcakes cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.
13. Ice with chocolate frosting, decorate as desired, and serve².

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¹ Double-check to ensure that your chocolate is vegan and doesn't contain any milk ingredients. ^Back
2 ATK notes that these cupcakes are best served the same day they're made. Personally, I think they're still delicious even two or three days later, so I wouldn't worry over-much about making them ahead. I think the quality of the icing suffers a bit after the first couple days, but they're still pretty tasty even so. ^Back

Chocolate Cupcakes (Unusual Recipe)

I don't really go on the Something Awful forums these days but, years ago, I used to like to read the CAKE thread. It's long-dead now, but before it closed and got archived, I went through it and collected all the recipes that people had shared over the years. I now have a huge file containing all the recipes and links. There's been some bit-rot over the years, so not all the links work anymore, but that's why I made my own copy of everything: so that I could still have access to the recipes even if the various sites went down.

At one point someone posted some photos of some cupcakes they'd made and mentioned that they'd used a recipe from this "Ming Makes Cupcakes" site. I grabbed that recipe and decided that while I was there, I might as well save ALL of the recipes for later reference.

I haven't had a chance to try most of them yet, but I think I've done at least one of the other "Ming Makes Cupcakes" recipes and had good results. I appreciate how straight-forward they are. The ingredient lists are usually pretty brief and simple and the instructions, while sometimes a bit laconic and lacking in detail, are direct and involve a minimum of faff.

Despite feeling generally happy with this set of recipes, this particular recipe did make me a bit nervous. The mixing instructions were very different from what I'm used to: Mix the acid and base directly and set aside while you make the rest of the batter? Melt the butter; don't cream it? Make a batter that's already verging on losing all cohesion and then add even more wet ingredients? None of that sounds right! And the icing was just as weird. I've never made icing by pouring hot melted butter into icing sugar before!

The whole thing was very strange and I was a bit worried that I was going to end up with a sad chocolate disaster rather than a tasty dessert. But they actually came out very nice! They were light and fluffy, but still pleasingly chocolatey. And the icing tasted rich and didn't have that you're-actually-just-eating-a-lump-of-sugary-butter taste and mouthfeel that most American buttercream tends to have. I was really shocked! Especially given how simplistic the recipe seemed. What a pleasant surprise!

So, TL;DR: Don't panic if your batter is sloshing around and ends up looking like extra-dark chocolate milk; it's supposed to.

Chocolate Cupcakes

From Ming Makes Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 1/4 c. buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 1/4 c. natural cocoa powder
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Chocolate Icing

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 75g cocoa powder (either natural or Dutcched)
• 450g icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar.
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4-5 Tbsp. milk

Directions

Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a muffin tin with papers.
2. Mix the baking soda into the buttermilk and set aside.
3. Combine the butter and the cocoa powder and melt over low heat, mixing thoroughly.
4. Remove from heat and pour in the water. Mix to combine.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the fugar, flour, and salt.
6. Pour the cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients and mix a little bit.
7. Mix in the egg.
8. The batter will already seem quite thin by this point, but go ahead an pour in the buttermilk and vanilla and mix that in too.
9. The batter will be extremely runny; this is fine. Don't be tempted to adjust the batter and add more flour.
10. Pour ~1/4 c. of batter into each muffin paper and bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~20 minutes.
11. Remove from oven and turn out onto wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Icing

1. Melt butter over medium heat.
2. Cook, stirring often, until butter begins to smell nutty.
3. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa and icing sugar together and set aside.
4. Once the butter is ready, pour it into the icing sugar mixture and stir a bit.
5. Add the vanilla and stir a bit more.
6. Add the milk, 1 Tbsp. at a time, until the desired consistency is achieved.
7. Once the cupcakes are cool, use either a piping bag or an offset spatula to generously frost each one.

So, this is one of several slightly insane recipes that I originally saw on the Something Awful cake thread. I originally assumed that "pumpkin pie cupcakes" meant "pumpkin pie-flavoured" and was expecting pumpkin cupcakes with pumpkin pie spices in the batter. Or maybe even just the pumpkin pie spices without the pumpkin itself. That's not the way this recipe rolls though! They start out by having you make a bunch of tiny pumpkin pies. (I guess maybe that makes them pumpkin tarts? I'm not sure.) And then you make your cupcakes, carefully nestling a mini pie in the centre of each one. And top it all off with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Like I said: insane. And fairly time-consuming and labour-intensive if you're making everything from scratch.
Tasty though.

The original recipe actually called for using store-bought pastry and canned pumpkin pie filling. But that's not the way I roll, so I started with a pie pumpkin and went from there. That said, if you'd like to save a little time, feel free to shave off a few steps with ready-made alternatives!

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

Slightly adapted from Bake It in a Cake via the Something Awful forums

Ingredients

Pumpkin Pies

• 250g flour
• 95g unsalted butter
• 75-90mL cold water
• 1 recipe pie filling from pumpkin pie

Cupcakes

• 3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1 c. sugar¹
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 1/3 c. milk², divided

Decoration

• 1 recipe icing from cayenne-pumpkin cupcakes³
• cinnamon-sugar roasted pumpkin seeds (optional)

Directions

Pumpkin Pies

1. If you're starting with a whole pumpkin, scoop the seeds and get it roasting first.
2. Cut the butter into the flour.
3. Mix the water in with a fork, adding 1 Tbsp. at a time.
4. Shape the pastry into a ball or disc, cover (or wrap in plastic wrap), and chill for at least an hour.
5. While the pastry is chilling, make your pumpkin pie filling: combine pumpkin, egg, egg yolks, sugar, coconut milk, and spices. Use an immersion blender to purée if using home-cooked/roasted pumpkin.
6. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
7. Divide the pastry into two roughly equal portions.
8. Working with one portion at a time, roll out fairly thin (maybe 2-3mm) and cut out 7.5cm (3") circles. Repeat with second portion of pastry. Then roll out scraps and continue until all pastry has been used (or nearly so).
9. Use the pastry circles to line the wells of a mini muffin pan (3-4cm diameter wells).
10. Place mini cupcake liners/papers inside each tart shell and place a few pie weights/beans inside each liner.
11. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for ~5 minutes.
12. Remove liners and pie weights and fill each tart shell with pumpkin pie filling.
13. Return to oven and bake for another 6-7 minutes.
14. Let pies cool in tin for 5-10 minutes, then use a spatula to carefully remove each one from the tin.⁴

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease the wells of a muffin tin (5cm/2" diameter wells). Alternatively, you may line the wells with cupcake liners.
2. Cream butter and cream cheese with the sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time.
4. Beat in the vanilla.
5. Add 1 c. of flour, but don't mix it in yet!
6. Sift the baking powder and baking soda in on top of the flour.
7. Add the salt on top of the flour as well.
8. Now mix in the flour.
9. Add about half of the milk and mix it in.
10. Add another c. of flour and mix it in.
11. Mix in the remaining milk.
12. Add the last 1/2 c. of flour and mix it in.
13. Mix for an additional 30 seconds.
14. Add a generous Tbsp. of batter to each well in the muffin tin.
15. Place a mini pie into each well and press it down a bit so that the batter comes up the sides.
16. Place another Tbsp. or so of batter on top of each pie and spread it out to completely encase the pie.
17. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 25 minutes.
18. Let cool in pan for ~5 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.

Decoration

1. Make icing as directed: beat butter and cream cheese together, beat in icing sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.
2. Chill icing until ready to use.
3. Once cupcakes are completely cooled, decorate with icing as desired.
4. If desired garnish with cinnamon-sugar roasted pumpkin seeds. (I'm kicking myself for not thinking of this until after I took the photo. The seeds were right there!)

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¹ The original recipe called for 1 1/2 c. of sugar, but that seemed like a lot, so I scaled it back a bit. I think the final cupcakes taste plenty sweet enough with only 1 c. of sugar. Especially since they end up getting iced as well. ^Back
2 Whoops! Just realized that the recipe says 1 1/3 c. milk, not 1 1/2. Oh well, it still seemed to turn out fine with 1 1/2 c. ^Back
3 The original recipe came with its own icing recipe but, as far as I can tell, it was pretty similar. The base was the same combination of cream cheese, butter, and icing sugar. The main difference seems to be that it also called for melting "cinnamon chips" and mixing them into the icing. I have never heard of cinnamon chips before. I assume they're some sort of cinnamon-flavoured white chocolate baking chip? Anyway, I had some icing left over from making the cayenne-pumpkin cupcakes the previous week, so I just used it here and was quite happy with the results. I figured it's still a cinnamon-y, cream cheese-y icing, so it amounts to just about the same thing. ^{Back 4} Full disclosure, I don't have a mini muffin pan, but I do have a Babycakes Cupcake Maker so I just used that to make my pies. This worked alright, but the crusts did end up a bit underbaked since you can't really blind bake them that way and the filling cooked faster than the pastry. I've written out the instructions to do them in the oven here both because I don't expect everyone to have a cupcake maker and because I think that blind baking the crusts will likely provide better results. (And I have used the pie weights inside a cupcake liner approach for making tart shells before. It works quite well. Although I usually use liners one size smaller than the wells on the muffin tin, so I'm not sure how that works when you're already using a mini muffin tin. If you can find "extra mini" liners, that would be idea. Otherwise I think slightly crumpling the liners so that they're a little more flexible and willing to conform to the smaller shape would probably work reasonably well. It may take some experimentation, but I'm sure it can be done! ^Back

I love pie pumpkins. They're just so cute and bright and they always feel special because they're so seasonal. You can get butternut squash all year round, but pie pumpkins are only available for a fairly narrow window in the fall.

The fact that they'll only be around for a limited time makes me really want to make the most of pumpkin season and get a bunch and cook lots of delicious pumpkin things. But I haven't been very good at it the last couple of years. And the only thing worse than missing your chance to get a pie pumpkin during pumpkin season is getting one and letting it go to waste because you couldn't get your act together enough to do anything with it.

I was reluctantly intending to abstain for getting any pumpkins this year because I didn't trust myself to use them up before they went bad. I've been having a lot of trouble staying on top of food and meal planning this year. But then I dropped the ball on one of the produce baskets and we ended up with a pie pumpkin anyway. I've spent the last few weeks alternately forgetting it existed and trying to figure out what to do with it. Pie is, of course, always an option, but I kind of wanted to try something different. And, after flipping through a few different recipes, I settled on this cayenne-pumpkin cupcake recipe.

I wasn't sure what the Kidlet would think of the cayenne in these cupcakes, so I dialed it way back. Having tasted the cupcakes, TF thinks I probably should've put the full amount in after all. With 1/2 tsp. of cayenne, I find it makes a gentle but noticeable impression. TF and the Kidlet both say they can barely taste it. I've called for 3/4 tsp. of cayenne in the recipe below, but feel free to use a bit more or a bit less according to your tastes. (The original recipe called for 1 1/4 tsp.)

Cayenne-Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Slightly adapted from C&C Cakery

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 3/4 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. allspice berries, ground
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 c. yogurt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 c. mashed roasted pumpkin

Icing

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 c. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

Directions

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a muffin tin (or line with papers).
2. Sift baking powder and baking soda into flour.
3. Add salt, cinnamon, ginger, cayenne, nutmeg, allspice, and pepper and stir to combine.
4. In a separate bowl, cream butter with the sugar and mix until light and fluffy.
5. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
6. Add half the flour mixture and stir until mostly combined.
7. Stir in the yogurt and the vanilla.
8. Add the remaining flour mixture and stir until almost combined.
9. Add the pumpkin and mix until just combined.
10. Spoon into prepared muffin wells. (I had more batter than would comfortably fit into twelve 5-cm wells.)
11. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until toothpic/skewer poked into centre comes out clean (~20 minutes or a bit more if you overfilled your pans like me).
Let cool in pan for 5 minutes then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.

Icing

1. Beat cream cheese with butter until mixed well.
2. Beat in the vanilla.
3. Mix the cinnamon with 1/2 c. of the flour and add it to the cream cheese mixture.
4. Continue adding icing sugar to the cream cheese mixture, half a cup at a time until it's all been incorporated.
5. Once the cupcakes are completely cool, spoon a big dollop of frosting on top of each one.

The Kidlet and I wanted to try this funfetti cupcake recipe. I already have a good one, but I wanted to give this one a go and see how it compared. Overall, I think I like the America's Test Kitchen recipe better, but this one is still nice. The cupcakes rise fairly well, and they're tender. They are very sweet. So sweet that the Kidlet and I decided that we didn't want to ice them after all. That said, flavour is nice and they do work quite well as an uniced cupcake.

In future I'll probably go back to the ATK recipe for my future confetti cupcake needs, but I'm glad I gave this one a try.

Funfetti Cupcakes

slightly adapted from C&C Cakery via the Something Awful Forums

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 1 c. sugar
• 3 large egg whites
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract
• 1/4 c. milk
• 2 Tbsp. plain yogurt
• 1/4 c. sprinkles

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a miffin tin with cupcake liners/papers.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in egg whites one at a time.
5. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts.
6. In a small measuring cup, whisk together milk and yogurt.
7. Add half of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and stir to combine.
8. Pour in the milk mixture and stir to combine.
9. Stir in the remaining flour mixture along with the sprinkles.
10. Spoon into cupcake liners. Do not overfill. This recipe should just make 12 cupcakes. It may look like the wells are underfulled, but they should rise fairly well during baking.
11. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~20 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.
13. Once completely cooled, ice if desired. The original recipe recommends a Swiss meringue buttercream, but I would be inclined to try a French buttercream to help use up the excess egg yolks.
14. Garnish with additional sprinkles.

These cupcakes have a lot of moving parts. Here's how it works if you're making them to spec: first you have the cupcake (with homemade halwa incorporated into the batter), then you have the cashew-cream cheese icing, then you have the homemade pistachio kulfi, then you have even more icing, and finally the cashew-lime cookie with a lime glaze and sugar-coated fennel seeds for sprinkles. Definitely not an every day affair! But they are really good.

I'll admit, I did cheat a bit when making mine. I didn't want to wait for the kulfi to freeze overnight, so I just bought some ready-made kulfi and used that. I also used some leftover vanilla French buttercream I had in the fridge rather than making a fresh batch of cashew icing for this recipe. I'm sure the cashew icing would've been amazing, but the French buttercream got the job done, made my life easier, and used up some stuff out of the fridge that needed used.

I was worried that there'd be too much going on in these cupcakes and they'd end up being more "sensory overload" than delicious, but the combo actually works really well. I do think the cupcake itself gets overshadowed a bit, but the icing-kulfi-cookie combination is amazing! Definitely a more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts situation. That said, the cookies are also excellent on their own. And I think the cupcakes would be great with just the cashew icing if you didn't feel like making the kulfi and the cookies to go on top. I think a lightly iced cupcake without the other components would also allow the cupcake itself to shine a little more. It was fun to try something so ridiculously over-the-top though!

NB: If you're using pre-ground cardamom, double all the amounts called for in the recipe. Freshly ground tends to have a much more potent kick, so I dailed it way back.

Halwa Cupcakes

Adapted from C&C Cakery

Ingredients

Halwa

• 1 1/2 Tbsp. ghee
• 225g carrots, finely grated
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. whole (3.25%) milk or light (5%) cream
• 3/4 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods), ground
• 1/4 c. sugar

Cupcakes

• 195g flour¹
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods), ground
• 2 medium eggs or 1 large egg + 1 egg white
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. oil
• 1/4 c. milk
• 1/2 c. raw cashews, toasted and chopped

Assembly

• ~3 c. Cashew-Cream Cheese Icing or buttercream icing of your choice
• 3/4 c. Pistachio Kulfi (homemade or store-bought)
• 12 Cashew-Lime Cookies

Directions

Halwa

1. Melt ghee over medium heat.
2. Add grated carrot, cover, and cook for 3 minutes.
3. Add water and cook, covered, for another 3 minutes.
4. Uncover and cook for a minute or two to cook off excess moisture.
5. Add milk and cardamom, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cook, covered, for 15 minutes.
6. Stir in sugar and cook, uncovered, for another 5 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. Sift baking powder and baking soda into flour and mix.
3. Stir in salt and cardamom.
4. Stir eggs, vanilla, sugar, oil and milk into cooled halwa and mix well.
5. Add dry ingredients to halwa mixture and stir until just combined.
6. Spoon batter into lined muffin wells. (This made a dozen 5cm diameter cupcakes for me, but I filled the wells nearly to the top.)
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20-25 minutes. (Mine took 20.)
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

Assembly

1. Once cupcakes have cooled, spread a little icing on each one. Use a piping bag if you want it to look fancy.
2. Add about a Tbsp. of kulfi on top of the icing. If the kulfi seems to be getting too soft or melt-y, pop the cupcakes in the freezer for a few minutes before continuing.
3. Spread (or pipe) a little more icing on top of the kulfi.
4. Place a cookie on top.
5. Only assemble as many cupcakes as you plan to eat right away and serve immediately!

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¹ The original recipe called for "1 1/2 c. flour". I used all-purpose since I know the author is Canadian and the default flour type here is all-purpose. Given the nature of the recipe, though, I think soft/cake/plain/standard flour would work very well. My all-purpose flour comes in at ~130g per cup, so 1 1/2 c. comes out at right around 195g. Feel free to use whatever type of flour you prefer. ^Back

The Kidlet wanted to make cupcakes, so we decided to pick a recipe from the Something Awful cake thread to try out. I'm pretty happy with how these came out and the Kidlet definitely approved of the amount of applesauce that went into them. We opted for a French buttercream to top them with. The original recipe recommended a mascarpone frosting. I think the mascarpone frosting would've been lovely if I'd had some mascarpone on hand (or been willing to make some), but I didn't feel like putting that much effort in and the French buttercream was a lot easier to toss together with ingredients I already had on hand. I think a Swiss meringue buttercream would be another good option. I probably would've done a vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream this time around except the Kidlet voted for French buttercream so we went with that.

Oooh! I bet a caramel Swiss meringue buttercream would be really good with these cupcakes! Maybe I can try that out next time.

Apple-Cinnamon Cupcakes

From Just Jenn Recipes via the Something Awful cake thread

Ingredients

• 2 c. (~250g) all-purpose flour¹
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 3 c. frosting of your choice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. Sift together flour and baking soda.
3. Stir in cinnamon, sugar, and brown sugar.
4. Add butter, eggs, and applesauce and stir until just combined.
5. Spoon batter into prepared tin.
6. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20-25 minutes².

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¹ Soft/cake/plain/standard flour would also work here as long as you work by mass rather than volume. ^Back
2 This recipe made a dozen 5cm (2") cupcakes for me. If you're using a tin with significantly larger or smaller wells, then you'll need to adjust the baking time accordingly. Smaller cupcakes will bake faster. Larger ones will bake slower. ^Back

Yellow Cupcakes with Vanilla French Buttercream

All the Kidlet wanted to do yesterday was watch TV and play video games. She did stop to do her chess homework and I suggested that some of the video game time be spent on Khan Academy, so it wasn't all brain-melting, but still... Not really the best way to spend the day.

Yesterday was swimming lessons as well, so that got us out of the house for a bit. And we stopped at the craft store on the way home to pick out some new beads. After that I was casting around for fun things to do that didn't involve a screen. I suggested colouring, painting, macaroni art, collages, board games, and baking. And the promise of fresh baked goods did pique her interest. Initially she wanted to bake cookies, but the only recipe she would consider used a boxed cake mix and made these weird sort of cake-cookies. I suggested that maybe if she wanted something cake-like we should just make a cake or cupcakes. She was keen on the cupcakes.

There is a simple vanilla cupcake recipe in the "Young Chefs" cookbook I got her. But we've made that one before and I really wanted to try something different. We flipped through every cupcake recipe in The Perfect Cake and, after looking at each of them, she decided that she wanted to make the yellow cupcakes. So, yup, after all that we just ended up making plain vanilla cupcakes after all. Oh well. At least these were different vanilla cupcakes.

Yellow Cupcakes

From the Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3 c. icing of choice (I used a Vanilla French Buttercream)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line muffin tin with paper/foil liners.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and mix well.
3. Add butter, sour cream, egg, egg yolks, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for ~1 minute.
4. Scrape down bowl and give a final stir by hand, making sure there are no residual flour pockets.
5. Scoop into prepared muffin tin. (Should exactly fill a dozen 5cm (2") wells.)
6. Bake at 180°C (350&de;F) for ~20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and cool in tin for 15 minutes, then turn out and finish cooling on wire rack.
8. Wait until cupcakes are completely cool before icing.

This is one of the many, many cupcake recipes posted in the Something Awful cake thread. PezMaster also posted it on her own blog. I'm glad to finally get the chance to try this one. It came out really well.

The cupcakes were simultaneously dark and rich while also being light and fluffy. If you really like your chocolate (cup)cakes dense and heavy, this might not be the recipe for you. But I really enjoyed the texture. Even if it did confuse my mouth a bit at first. With a chocolate that dark and intense, my mouth was expecting a close, dense texture. The first bite was a little disorienting. But once I got used to the fact that these were light, airy cupcakes that somehow had the rich flavour of a dense chocolate cake, I liked them quite a lot!

The icing was also lovely. This was my first attempt at a Swiss meringue. I've only ever made French meringues before. The cooking process for Swiss meringues has always intimidated me. And my buttercreams have always been American. Again, because I've never been confident in my ability to make any of the more involved buttercreams. I tend to go with very simple icings, when I bother to ice my cakes at all: glacé, royal, American buttercream, or a simple glaze. I was really pleased with how this one came out. And the Swiss meringue wasn't as tricky as I'd feared. My one complaint with this recipe is that the author recommended a bit of orange juice as an optional extra. As soon as I added the orange juice, the mixture instantly seized and curdled and no amount of warming, chilling, or beating could salvage it. I had to start over again from scratch. And when I started over, I also doubled the recipe. There's no way that the original amount would've been enough to decorate all the cupcakes!

And my last comment on this recipe is that I was in a bit of a flap and totally forgot to add the semisweet chocolate that was supposed to get sprinkled over the cupcakes just before they went in the oven. I'm sure they would've been even richer and more chocolate-y with it, but they were beautiful and delicious without it. So, use it if you have it, but don't worry about it if you don't. You'll get lovely cupcakes either way.

Chocolate-Coconut Cupcakes with Orange Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Slightly adapted from C&C Cakery

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 1/2 c. cocoa powder, preferably Dutched
• 1/2 c. boiling water
• 1 3/4 c. soft (cake/plain/standard) flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 c. coconut milk¹
• 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 3/4 c. sugar, divided
• 3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
• 3/4 c. shredded coconut²
• 85g (3 oz.) semisweet chocolate, chopped (optional)

Icing

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp. orange oil³
• zest of 2 oranges

Garnishes

These are optional. I left a few cupcakes plain and then tried out different toppings on the rest.

• chocolate sprinkles
• chocolate shavings
• shredded coconut (toast it if you feel like being extra fancy)
• giant orange "sprinkles" (the bottle says sprinkles, but they're the size of small blueberries!)
• chocolate fudge sprinkle mix
• candied orange slices

Directions

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Combine cocoa with boiling water and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
4. In a measuring cup, combine coconut milk and vanilla. Set aside.
5. In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 c. of the granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Add egg yolks to butter mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition.
7. Add cooled cocoa mixture and beat until well-combined.
8. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by 1/2 of the coconut milk mixture. Repeat this, ending with the final 1/3 of the flour mixture. Set aside.
9. Clean and dry your beaters very well.
10. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy.
11. Add remaining 1/4 c. sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, until whites hold firm peaks. (You should be able to hold the bowl upside down without it dripping or sliding around.)
12. Mix about 1/3 of the meringue into the batter to loosen it. (You don't need to worry about knocking the air out at this point.)
13. Gently fold in the remaining meringue being careful to mix it in thoroughly while deflating it as little as possible. Toward the end of the folding process, sprinkle in the shredded coconut.
14. Spoon batter into lined cupcake tin(s). (This made two dozen 2" cupcakes for me.)
15. Optional: Sprinkle with chopped semisweet chocolate.
16. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for ~20 minutes.
17. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Icing

1. Combine egg whites and sugar in a large heatproof bowl.
2. Place bowl over a pot of boiling water and whisk egg whites until sugar is completely dissolved and egg whites have gone from clear to white.
3. Remove from heat and beat until stiff glossy peaks form.
4. If meringue is still hot, allow to cool to about body temperature before continuing.
5. Beat in softened butter, a little at a time.
6. Beat in the orange zest and oil.

Assembly

1. Once cupcakes are completely cool, pipe on the icing and decorate with garnish(es) of your choice.

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¹ The recipe specifically calls for full-fat coconut milk, but I only had "lite" coconut milk in the pantry so I just used that. I was very happy with my results. I wouldn't hesitate to use lite/light/low-fat coconut milk for this recipe in the future. ^Back
2 The recipe doesn't specify whether the coconut should be sweetened or unsweetened. I only keep unsweetened coconut on hand as a general rule, so I just used that. If you're going to use sweetened coconut, it might be wise to cut back on the sugar a little. I found the sweetness just right with the unsweetened coconut. Also, if you want the coconut to have a bit more presence, use a medium or large/coarse shred. I used fine which pretty much just disappeared into the batter. You could still taste it, but you couldn't see it or feel it. For some, that might be a selling point. For others, it might be a detraction. Adjust accordingly. ^Back
3 The original recipe calls for 2 Tbsp. orange concentrate. (Well, 1 Tbsp. actually, but for half as much icing as I made. So, scaled up, it would be 2 Tbsp.) I have no idea what that means. Perhaps orange juice concentrate? I'd be wary of putting that in though, considering how my experiments with adding orange juice went. Perhaps orange extract? I couldn't find that. The best I could do was orange oil. But that came in tiny little one dram bottles, so I assumed it was quite a bit more potent than orange extract. Zest from two oranges + 1/2 tsp. of orange oil seems to have done the job nicely. If you have some orange extract on hand, try putting in a teaspoon or two and see how it tastes. If you feel like experimenting with orange juice concentrate, go ahead, but be aware that your icing might curdle. ^Back

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

In theory these were supposed to be rooibos velvet cupcakes. But I went a little heavy on the brown sugar and it ended up dominating. There's still a hint of tea and spice from the rooibos, but it's not nearly as prominent as I'd hoped. In retrospect, I think I probably should've just stuck with white sugar in the batter and relied on the toppings to deliver the caramel-y goodness.

I'll still share what I did this time, just in case brown sugar cupcakes (with a hint of rooibos) are appealing. But I'll also post a(n untested) recipe suggestion below this that will hopefully deliver the actual lightly chocolate-y, rooibos-flavoured cupcakes I was imagining.

Brown Sugar Rooibos Cupcakes

Adapted from a red velvet cake recipe in the Something Awful cake thread

1 c. buttermilk

1/4 c. heavy (35%) cream

2 Tbsp. rooibos chai

1 c. butter, softened

1 c. firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. vinegar

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1. Combine buttermilk and heavy cream and gently warm them.

2. Remove from heat and add tea. Stir and set aside to steep for at least 15 minutes.

3. Cream butter with sugars until light and fluffy.

4. Mix in eggs one at a time.

5. Strain buttermilk mixture and gradually beat it into the butter mixture.

6. Stir in vanilla and vinegar.

7. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.

8. Mix dry ingredients into wet. Do not over mix.

9. Scoop batter into lined cupcake pans. (Should be enough for 24 cupcakes if you don't overfill them like I did mine!)

10. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.

11. Allow to cool completely, then frost/decorate as desired.

I had some problems with my buttermilk curdling, even with the added cream/fat to help stabilize it. I think next time I might just use whole milk. Heat it up, add the tea, then add some vinegar and let it steep. And, as for making actual rooibos velvet cupcakes? Well, see below.

Rooibos Velvet Cupcakes (Hopefully!)

Adapted from a red velvet cake recipe found on the Something Awful cake thread

1 1/4 c. whole milk

2 Tbsp. rooibos

5 tsp. vinegar, divided

1 c. butter, softened

1 1/4 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1. Gently warm the milk until it is just steaming. (Do not allow to boil!)

2. Add the tea. Stir. Wait 5 minutes. Then add 4 tsp. vinegar. Stir again and set aside for at least 10 more minutes.

3. Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

5. Strain the milk and gradually beat it in to the butter mixture.

6. Stir in the vanilla and the remaining 1 tsp. vinegar.

7. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt.

8. Mix dry ingredients into wet by hand.

9. Scoop batter into lined cupcake pan(s).

10. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.

Chocolate-Rooibos Cupcakes (from Something Awful)

I loved the Something Awful cake thread when it was active. There were so many great recipes and beautiful cake decorating projects shared there. It's a shame that it kind of fizzled, but it had a good run.

I've been craving baked goods lately, so I decided to look to the cake thread for inspiration. Sadly, this recipe didn't turn out quite as well as I'd hoped, but it has given me inspiration for future baking adventures, so... stay tuned!

Chocolate-Rooibos Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

Adapted slightly from C&C Cakery (via Something Awful)

2 Tbsp. rooibos tea (I used rooibos chai)

1 c. boiling water

1 2/3 c. all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 c. canola oil

4 eggs, separated

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

pinch cream of tartar

0. Place egg whites in a large bowl and place in fridge until needed.

1. Pour boiling water over tea and set aside to steep for ~15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, combine cocoa powder, vanilla, and oil.

4. When the tea is done steeping, strain it (or remove the bags).

5. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugars together.

6. Pour the cocoa mixture into the sugar and mix until blended.

7. Pour the tea in, a bit at a time, and mix until blended.

8. Gradually add the flour.

9. WASH YOUR BEATERS.

10. Get the egg whites out of the fridge and add a pinch of cream of tartar.

11. Whip until they form soft peaks. (I think mine were closer to stiff peak stage. Seems to have worked out okay though.)

12. Scoop about 1/4 of the whipped egg whites into the batter and stir them in well to loosen the batter.

13. Add the rest of the egg whites and very gently fold them in.

14. Pour ~1/3 c. batter into cupcake liners (in a muffin tin) and bake at 350F for 16-18 minutes.

15. Allow to cool completely before icing.

Caramel Buttercream

6 Tbsp. heavy cream

1 tsp. rooibos tea

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

6 Tbsp. sugar

3 Tbsp. water

3/4 c. unsalted butter, room temperature

2 1/2 c. icing sugar

1. Warm cream in the microwave (20-30 seconds).

2. Stir in tea leaves and set aside to steep for 15 minutes or so.

3. When tea is done steeping, strain and stir in vanilla.

4. Combine sugar and water in a small pot or pan and cook over medium heat until mixture just begins to brown.

5. Remove from heat and pour in cream while whisking.

6. Cream butter. Sift in icing sugar while continuing to beat.

7. Pour in caramel and mix until blended.

The actual cake part of these cupcakes was fine. They had a nice texture. Were light, but chocolate-y. And the rooibos did come through a bit. The icing, on the other hand, was a disaster. First of all, the original recipe calls for 1 1/2 CUPS of butter! Seeing as I didn't want to use up 3/4 of a pound of butter in one go, I decided to just do a half batch of icing and deal with maybe not having enough for all the cupcakes. All I can say is it's a good thing I decided to start with a half batch!

I can only assume that the recipe author had a brain fart and actually meant 1 1/2 STICKS of butter. I did up a half batch of the icing according to the recipe and it just tasted like butter. After adding the full amount of icing sugar, it was actually starting to taste like icing, if somewhat bland. So I figured that it must've been a typo and made up another batch of caramel to add to it as well. Since the first bit of caramel didn't really seem to have much presence in the icing, I decided to do the second batch with brown sugar to boost the flavour a little bit.

It still just tasted like vanilla icing.

So, now I had twice as much icing as I'd originally intended to make and, while it was inoffensive, it didn't really seem to have much going on. It was very sweet and very bland.

What I probably should've done at this point was make up another small batch of caramel to mix in. But I was tired and frustrated and I had a little bit of condensed milk sitting in the fridge. So, I decided to try making dulce de leche. And then, because I wanted to make sure that the icing actually tasted of something this time, I added an extra Tbsp. of brown sugar to the milk while it cooked. And then, in my quest to get it just a bit darker and just a bit more flavourful... I went a bit too far and ended up cooking the milk right down to a sort of stiff, extremely chewy caramel candy. Which, needless to say, did not mix into the buttercream terribly well.

At that point, I gave up on the idea of trying to get this icing to take on any sort of flavour and just decided to roll with sugary, slightly vanilla-scented frosting with chunks of chewy caramel embedded in it. Not ideal, but I wasn't really willing to keep fiddling with it.

Honestly, I think what I'd like to do is redesign the whole recipe from the ground up. I think the chocolate-rooibos-caramel flavour combo has potential, but none of them really got to shine here. So, here's what I'm thinking for round two:

Rooibos Velvet Cake with Dulce de Leche and Butterscotch Frosting

Adapted from a red velvet cake recipe in the Something Awful cake thread

1 1/4 c. buttermilk

2 Tbsp. rooibos

1 c. butter, room temperature

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1/8 tsp. salt

1. In a small saucepan, gently warm the buttermilk.

2. Add the tea, set aside, and allow to steep.

3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in the egg.

5. Strain buttermilk and add to batter.

6. Stir in vinegar and vanilla.

7. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt.

8. Stir dry ingredients into batter until just mixed.

9. Pour into two greased and floured 9" pans and bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes.

10. Let cool completely.

Butterscotch Frosting

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 large egg white

1/2 tsp. salt

12 Tbsp. butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Combine sugar, egg white, and salt in a heatproof bowl.

2. Heat mixture over simmering water, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes (until it reaches 150F).

3. Remove from heat and beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes.

4. Add butter, one Tbsp. at a time, and beat until smooth.

5. Mix in vanilla.

6. Increase speed to medium high and beat until light and fluffy.

Assembly

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 layers cake

1 recipe butterscotch frosting

1. Pour the condensed milk into a baking dish and bake until darkened.

2. Place first layer upside down on plate.

3. Spread with dulce de leche.

3a. Optionally, spread a bit of frosting over the dulce de leche.

4. Place second layer (right way up) on top of dulce de leche filling.

5. Frost top and sides of cake.

Obviously I haven't tried out the above recipe yet, so I can't vouch for it. I just thought it might be interesting to replace the food colouring in a red velvet recipe with rooibos and see how it goes. Red velvet cakes already have the slightly chocolate-y thing going on. And I'm not a big fan of all the red food colouring anyway. So I figured this might be an interesting way to play with the chocolate-rooibos combo.

Meanwhile, the suggested butterscotch frosting for this particular red velvet cake sounds somewhat more promising than the caramel buttercream given above. It's got the same amount of butter, but much less sugar. And what sugar there is is brown. And the presence of the egg whites should hopefully give it some body without relying on either icing sugar or yet more butter. *fingers crossed!*

Hopefully I'll be able to take this particular combo for a test run soon and see how my theory pans out. I'll try to do another write-up for it and share the results when I do.

Bacon Cupcakes

What can I say? I had to try these. How could I not? It's bacon... in a cupcake!

Maple-Bacon Cupcakes
From C&C Cakery (slightly modified)
8 slices of bacon (maple bacon if possible)
1/4 c. butter, softened
1 Tbsp. bacon fat, solidified
5 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 c. high-quality maple syrup
1 large egg
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk

Maple-Bacon Frosting
1/4 c. butter, softened
1/4 c. bacon fat, solidified
1/4 c. maple syrup
2 c. icing sugar, sifted
turbinado sugar (optional)
coarse sea salt (optional)

1. Cook bacon until very crisp, reserving drippings. Crumble six of the slices and reserve the other two for garnishing the finished cupcakes.
2. Beat the butter with the bacon fat until combined then add the sugar and cream together until light and fluffy.
3. Blend in the maple syrup and the egg.
4. Combine the dry ingredients and add to the wet mix a little at a time, alternating with the milk and ending with a dry addition.
5. Stir in the crumbled bacon.
6. Spoon into cupcake liners and bake at 350F for 18-20 minutes. (C&C says this should make a dozen cupcakes, but I must've made mine slightly larger than she made hers because I only got nine.)
7. Combine butter, bacon fat, and maple syrup and beat until well-blended.
8. Gradually sift in icing sugar and beat until frosting is smooth and delicious.
9. Once cupcakes are cool, decorate with frosting. Sprinkle on a little turbinado sugar and/or sea salt as desired. (My bacon was pretty salty, so I didn't feel the need to add any extra salt.) Top each cupcake with ~1/6 of a slice of bacon. Enjoy your bacon-y dessert!

The maple flavour in these cupcakes is pretty subtle. It's definitely detectable, but bacon is definitely the dominant flavour here. And it works! That said, I think it would be nice with a stronger maple presence as well. I might try using a slightly darker syrup next time and/or replacing 1 Tbsp. of the brown sugar with a Tbsp. of maple syrup to try to pump up the maple-y goodness.

Another interesting option might be to try injecting the cupcakes with a little bit of maple syrup. It would help keep them delicious and moist for longer and definitely increase the maple quotient. I'd just have to make sure not to overdo it and end up with a sickly sweet, sticky mess rather than a delicious confection. Maybe the answer is to leave out a Tbsp. or two of sugar from the batter and then inject each cupcake with 1-2mL of syrup once they come out of the oven... Hmmm... I think this requires additional testing. For science!