You Are Worth a Maple Bacon Cupcake! Happy Birthday to Me!

May 16, 2014

In my last post I talked about finding Godde in my maple bacon cupcakes and that is surely true! When I tasted the cupcakes I made for my 33rd birthday last weekend, something happened that’s never happened when I’ve eaten something before: I sang the doxology in my head!

Praise Godde to whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all Creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly host. Praise Godde, the Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Some might call this sacrilegious to sing the doxology over a cupcake, but I say when the Spirit moves you, the Spirit moves. A church that I used to attend would say every Easter, “Taste and see that Godde is good,”- well, if Godde has been compared to the land of milk and honey, then surely She can be compared to a maple bacon cupcake. I made a maple cupcake from the blog, Cupcake Adventures and then maple buttercream frosting from Just A Pinch Recipes, to which I added bacon bits. The cupcake by itself is marvelous, like an already syruped pancake! Yum! Of course, each cupcake was also topped with a large chunk of bacon too! Yummm. That chunk wrapped in the rich maple frosting was the best part to me. Orgasmic! My Friends and I could not help sighing and exclaiming, “wow!” Really, you’ve just got to try making this cupcake!

 Maple Cupcake Recipe:

Ingredients
2 /12 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 stick unsalted butter (softned)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk


Heat oven to 350º. Sift together Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, syrup, and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture by thirds, alternating with the buttermilk.

Fill 18 lined muffin cups and bake until tester comes out clean, about 20 mins. Cool completely.

Frosting Recipe: with my own adaptations
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
4 TBSP pure maple syrup
4-5 strips of bacon
Start by frying 4-5 pieces of bacon.  Then whip the room-temperature, un-salted butter until smooth and creamy.  Sift in 2 cups of powdered sugar, mixing on low speed until combined. While continuing to whip on medium speed, add 4 tablespoons of Maple Syrup; tablespoon by tablespoon until well combined. Cut 3 of the bacon strips and add them to the frosting and stir.  Frost the cupcakes and add a bigger piece of bacon to each for a garnish.


 A friend of mine thought that I should not make my own birthday cupcakes, but for me it was a form of self-indulgence, self-soothing, and self-care. One, I genuinely enjoy cooking and so making my own cake is not drudgery for me, but is a form of self-indulgence, because I get to make the cupcakes exactly the way I want them. I want more maple syrup? Why, yes, I’ll pour a little more in! I want bacon in the frosting? Don’t mind if I do!!! Food almost always tastes better when you make it yourself. If you don’t cook a lot, then you have got to trust me on this-I have had bacon maple cupcakes before and mine were definitely the best by far!!! Another thing is that I have been a little depressed recently and I had been wanting to try out this recipe recently for a while now-making myself do something productive, being mindfully engaged in it, and that it was something that was to make myself and others feel good was a great help against my depression. It seems to me that in our culture we have this idea that if we are being celebrated then we should not have to do any work, but doing work that we enjoy can help get us out of our heads, make us more appreciative, more grounded, less anxious and help keep our egos at bay.

 The next day, my family and my new boyfriend (!), went to my favorite local restaurant, The Georgia Pine. We went there last year and I got the same dish, because it is sooo good:

honey pork and greens sandwich; grilled okra and onions; ginger beer. Afterwards he took me to get a foot message!!! Yeah, it was a good day! Pamper yourself whether it is your birthday or not, whether you are depressed or not-do at least one thing nice for yourself to help keep your mood up, whether it’s trying out these astounding cupcakes or simply making yourself a nice cup of tea or reading a good book. You are worth it!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *