Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcake Challenge

It's no secret that my fiance, Nick and I both share a love of cooking and we're competitive.  So, after taking a trip to Galveston this summer an idea arose.  We visit Galveston every summer, mainly for the food.  A few summers ago we discovered La Kings Confectionery, a cool place with retro candy, fudge, ice cream, and Snickerdoodle coffee, that must be primarily caffeine, because I get a day-long jolt from it.  While there, we discovered chocolate covered potato chips, which we didn't try, but it got our thoughts rolling with the salty/ sweet combo.  We wondered if bacon could take the place of the chips and an idea was born.  Since then, Nick has convinced me that the groom's cake at our wedding must include bacon, so the experimenting began last night.

I decided to try my take on Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes in honor of Nick's birthday.  They turned out amazingly rich, to the point that you only have to eat half to get your fix of dark chocolatey bacon goodness.  The coffee creates a great base that really adds to the flavor of the cake.

For the cake, you will need:

10 slices of bacon  (7 for the cake, 3 to top)
2 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, (I used the Hershey's Special Dark variety)
2 cups white sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup coffee, brewed
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Cook the bacon in a skillet, drain off the fat, then crumble into small bits.  Combine all other ingredients in a large bowl, then stir in about 3/4 of the bacon crumbles.  Like your muffin pan with liners and pour batter into the cups about 3/4 full.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  You'll know they are finished when a toothpick to the center comes out clean.

Batter ready to be poured into the cups.

Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes on the cooling rack waiting to be frosted.

In the meantime, you'll make the perfect chocolate frosting.  Honestly, this frosting is so rich it could pass for fudge itself.

You will need:
1 stick of butter
2/3 cup Hershey's cocoa (I used the Special Dark variety)
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Wait until the cupcakes are completely cool before frosting, otherwise it will become runny.  This was the standard frosting recipe, but I had a lot left over after frosting the 24 cupcakes.  You could probably get away with cutting the recipe depending on how many cupcakes you are making.  Add the extra bacon crumbles to the top of each cupcake.

The finished product