Show Him You Love Him - with bacon

Did you ever read Light Freshments Served, the now (sadly) defunct blog? When that blog ended, I continued to follow the blog of one of the contributors, the hilarious Vern. A few weeks ago she posted about some amazing cupcakes she created, and I knew I needed to try them out. When I went to the aforementioned Valentine's Day party, I had the perfect opportunity to make them.

Now these are not the kind of cupcake you make for your child to take to his class on his birthday. For one thing, they are way too much work to be smeared on little hands and classroom tables. For another, in these days of childhood obesity, you might get complaints from the rest of the parents for introducing their children to the wonders of candied bacon.

That's right folks - it is bacon pieces, mixed with melted butter and then sprinkled with sugar - and yes, it is as good as it sounds.

Without further ado, presenting Vern's Chocolate Cupcakes with Maple Frosting and Candied Bacon.

So, let me admit straight away that I did not use Vern's recipe for chocolate cake. Why? Because I am lazy. I used my old stand-by chocolate cake recipe that comes mostly from boxes and bags.

The embellishment is what gave me the most trouble and mostly because I am an idiot, and when I first melted the sugar in a pan, I decided to use a rubber spatula to stir, which slowly melted in with the sugar, making a gooey rubbery disgusting embellishment not fit to top a flip flop, let alone these cupcakes. So I had to start over, this time using a non-plastic spoon to stir. Chad and the boys seemed to think the heart embellishments would have looked better if they were uniform and pretty, but I liked the arty look.

Vern's cupcakes were much prettier than mine, but I think that as soon as people see the bacon on top, that is pretty much all they can think about anyway. I noticed that it is was mostly the men at the party who took to these babies, with one of them pointing to the bacon and exclaiming, "Let me just tell you, this is GENIUS."

Just a side note, I should have made these the night before because although I let them cool before the party, the leftovers were much better the next day after sitting in the fridge all night.

Thanks for the recipe Vern, and keep doing what you do. Visit her whenever you need a laugh!