French Toast and Bacon... In a Cupcake?

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about these cupcakes when I first made them. I'm not crazy about mixing savory and sweet food items. But I figured it wouldn't taste much different than when the bacon on your plate of French toast accidentally finds its way into the maple syrup.


In the end, I'm very glad I gave these a try. They are SO good. The cake is just a basic cupcake recipe, with lots of maple syrup and cinnamon mixed in, along with pieces of [cooked] bacon. The frosting is Swiss meringue buttercream, infused with maple flavoring. This cupcake really does taste like French toast and bacon!

If you don't think you'd like a big glob of frosting on this cupcake, by the way, I've had success making a maple glaze to top these with instead. It's just as delicious!

Time for Pumpkin Pie

Here's a shocking admission: I've never made pie from scratch. I know, the horror! Anyway, for Thanksgiving, my parents have asked me to bring a couple of desserts: cake (I'm going with a cranberry walnut cake with maple frosting), and -- you guessed it -- pumpkin pie.

I don't know why, but I'm very intimidated by the prospect of making pie dough from scratch. So for my pie test run, I turned to one of my favorite sites for a recipe: Pâte Brisée from Simply Recipes. The recipe is easy, but requires a food processor, which thankfully I have. And it makes a wonderful, tasty pie dough.

For my pie test run, I decided to make mini pumpkin pies. I sprayed a cupcake tin with some PAM for baking, and rolled out the dough to about 1/8" thick. I then used a large round cookie cutter to cut out the dough, and pressed each disc gently into the cupcake tin cups. I managed to [just barely] squeeze 12 discs out of 1 recipe of dough, with a little left over to make a garnish out of.


Here's the recipe I used for the filling:

1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients and pour into the unbaked pie shells. Bake at about 350˚F for 20-25 minutes.

I think next time I make this I'll use an egg wash on the dough tops to encourage browning. I'm eager to try this in a full 9-inch pie form next week. Wish me luck!

I Hope You Like Hazelnut!

I love hazelnuts. Love love love 'em. Frangelico, too. And Nutella? Even better! Hence, these cupcakes. They are hazelnut-vanilla cake, filled with Nutella whipped cream, and topped with Frangelico cream cheese frosting. They're delicious, and believe it or not, they're pretty easy to make, too.

Just take your favorite vanilla cupcake recipe (from scratch or from a box), and add a teaspoon or two of hazelnut extract (I used Flavorganics organic hazelnut extract), then make the cupcakes as you usually do. The filling is 2 cups of heavy cream, whipped up, with a cup of Nutella added into the mix. And the frosting is just a basic cream cheese frosting recipe, with Frangelico added until your desired taste and consistency is reached. Wasn't that simple?

Thank You!

Many thanks to the people at Betty Crocker for spotlighting the pumpkin cheddar biscuits I made a couple of weeks ago! The biscuits were mentioned in not one but three places: Betty Crocker's Facebook page, their Twitter, and in their forum. Thanks again, and I hope whatever new readers those links brought to my little site will stick around for a while!

More Halloween Cupcakes!

Not the best picture, but you get the idea! These are pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes with a Swiss meringue buttercream frosting that had hints of vanilla, cinnamon, and caramel in it. I spent a bit more time decorating these than I usually spend on cupcakes. They're still not that great, but hey, I like 'em. :P




This time of year is always bittersweet for me. My favorite holiday, Halloween, is over, but there's so much still to look forward to: the rest of autumn, and winter; Thanksgiving; Christmas, Yule, or whatever you want to call it; and of course, New Year's. Oh, and my birthday is in there among all that, too! I really do love this time of year. And not only because it means I get to fire up my oven more often to bake!

(And, speaking of winter, I wonder if Santa will bring me a new camera? As you can see, mine is dying a slow but steady death. Sorry for the crummy pictures, everyone.)