Andy Loves Bacon

My friend Andy loves bacon.  For his birthday, he asked me, jokingly, "Can't you do something with bacon?"  How could I let him down?  The result of this challenge has been by far the most controversial cake I've ever baked.  Most folks' immediate reaction is, "Gross!" but I've won over every single person who has tried it.  I'm not the only one using bacon in her cupcakes, but apparently the trend hasn't caught on yet around this zip code.   

For Andy, I made a pumpkin cake with maple buttercream topped with a strip of bacon.  They were so good I made another batch the same week and topped them with crumbled bacon, which we all took to calling bacon jimmies.  As Andy's partner Chris exclaimed, "It tastes like breakfast in a cupcake!"  It sure does!  It's salty-sweet bliss. 

*This picture along with several others with this same note were taken well before I ever contemplated starting a cake blog. Expect much better image quality in posts to come!