Bacon Cupcakes
It was inevitable. Cupcake, meet bacon.
Bacon's sweet-smoky essence has found its way into every corner of our lives, including our medicine cabinets, pockets, closets and cars. And now bakeries across the country are getting in on the trend by mashing together two of our nation's biggest food memes–bacon and cupcakes–with surprisingly tasty results.
At Buzz bakery in Alexandria, Virginia, pastry chef Josh Short flavors chocolate cupcakes with applewood-smoked bacon ($2.75). "These are my two favorite flavors, so I'm often looking for a way to combine them; the smokiness of the bacon goes very well with the earthiness of the chocolate cake," he says.
In Boulder, Colorado, Tee & Cakes serves up a maple-flavored cupcake (pictured) topped with chocolate ganache and a hefty pile of chopped bacon ($2.65). And in Chicago, More Cupcakes owner Patty Rothman has gone hog wild with five sweet-savory treats ($4.50 each), including a BLT cupcake topped with ranch-flavored frosting, heirloom tomatoes and microgreens, and a potato cupcake topped with sour-cream frosting, chives and bacon crumbles.
Can't wait for a taste? Chicago's Bleeding Heart Bakery will send you its bacon-and-peanut-butter cupcakes ($3.25 each, plus shipping). We hear they're great with bacon-flavored coffee.
?Editor's note: Bleeding Heart Bakery has closed.