1
cup all-purpose flour
1
cup cake flour
1
3.9-ounce box instant vanilla pudding mix
1
teaspoon baking powder
1
tablespoon potato starch
1
teaspoon cinnamon
1
teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½
teaspoon salt
1
stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼
cup packed light brown sugar
1/3
cup granulated sugar
1 ½
teaspoons vanilla extract
4
large egg whites, at room temperature
¼
cup maple syrup
½
cup half-and-half room temperature
½
cup chopped cooked bacon (about 5 strips) (+ some for decorating)
For
the Frosting:
1
cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
About
4-5 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 ½
teaspoons vanilla
½
teaspoon salt
1/3
cup maple syrup
2
tablespoons heavy cream
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and place paper liners in a 12 cup muffin tin. Combine flours, pudding mix, baking powder, potato starch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl with a whisk.In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars with a mixer on low speed until combined, 6-8 minutes.
Gradually mix in the vanilla and egg whites. Scrape down the sides of the bowl; continue mixing until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with maple syrup and half-and-half. Mix until the ingredients are just combined, do not over mix. Fold in the bacon pieces; batter will be thick.
This is when I realized that they weren’t joking when they said the batter would be thick. I was worried that they would be too dense.
So I added about ¾ cup of warm water to the batter and mixed it in. (I also made sure to add in a little extra maple syrup, because I like it!) “Pour” (the batter is still thick even with the added water and maple syrup so I scooped mine) the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling each about ¾ of the way.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. I baked mine for about 22 minutes and continued to check them. I think adding in the water/maple syrup helped me cook a little quicker and I didn’t want to overcook them.
Cool cupcakes completely prior to frosting. I used both the all-purpose flour and the cake flour, but that is just because I had the cake flour from a previous recipe. I did some research on what exactly is the difference between cake, all-purpose and bread flour. If you are like me and wonder about these silly things- the difference in all of the flours depends on the gluten content and whether the flour is made from hard wheat (bread) or soft wheat (cake).
If you only have all-purpose flour (which is the middle ground between bread and cake) then you can substitute the 1 cup cake flour with 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour.
See, you learn something new every day! The recipe also calls for a 3.9 ounce box of vanilla instant pudding- I could not find a 3.9 ounce box in vanilla, but chocolate comes in this size.
Isn’t that weird? I just used the closest size I could find for the vanilla (which I think was 3.7 ounces). I substituted corn starch for the potato starch, and who has the time to make freshly grated nutmeg!? McCormick® nutmeg worked just fine.
To Make the Frosting
Beat butter on high speed until light in color and fluffy in texture (this could take 5 or more minutes). Beat in the vanilla, and salt.Gradually beat in the sugar one cup at a time, alternating with maple syrup. Add the heavy cream and beat on high for 4-5 minutes. Frost cupcakes and decorate with chopped bacon and drizzled maple syrup. I didn’t do much to change the frosting recipe. I added in a little extra maple syrup- just because I wanted to make sure to taste that and not just sugar. You can use a little extra heavy cream if you want to thin the frosting and sugar to thicken it.
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