Bacon Sprinkles?! Cupcake with a twist

I decided to join a blog group called Taste and Create (tasteandcreate.com) where food bloggers gather and also trade recipes. The Owner of this blog came up with and ingenious riff on the recipe swap. You join her website by the 8th of the month and by the 11th, she pairs you up with another food blogger. Each of you has to create, taste and blog about the recipe you tried.

I anxiously waited for my pairing and was teamed up with Dish on Diva Desserts(www.dish-on-divadesserts.com). She made my best ever Chocolate Chip cookies and apparently she was quite happy with the results. Her pictures came out great and I suspect, like me, she has a new recipe in her repertoire! A quick search of her recipes left me with 2 choices, French Toast cupcakes or Mini Kaluah Cakes. Sure I wanted to make the Kaluah cakes but I wasn't going to eat it all alone. I also was thinking about the upcoming back to school breakfast for the teachers, so to the pantry I went.

HOLY MOLY!! I think I may have just made the best twist-on-a-cupcake, ever! Any recipe that includes bacon deserves a shot but then my children came up with ingenious suggestion of bacon as sprinkles. They were quick to point out that I had candied carrot peels so why not bacon as sprinkles? The recipe called for strips of bacon top but I always have bacon pieces handy so we were ready to start.

Here my friends is the recipe:

• 12 slices of bread any kind frosting
• 8 ounce(s) of Philly Cream Cheese

• 1 tsp. of cinnamon

• 1 tsp. of nutmeg

• 12 tbsp. of Maple Syrup pure

• 1/4 cup(s) of Pecans chopped

• 1 cup(s) of diced peaches

• 12 slices bacon cooked and cut into 1 inch strips

• 1/4 cup(s) of Maple Syrup for
• 1 Stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter for Frosting

• 4 cup(s) of Powdered Sugar for Frosting

• 8 eggs

• 8 ounce(s) of Philly Cream Cheese for Frosting
1. Tear or cut your 12 slices of bread into chunks and place in a large mixing bowl. You can use any kind of bread you have in the house. You can also use left over cake such as pound cake.

2. Crack 8 eggs into a large bowl and mix together.

3. Add 8 oz of Philly Cream cheese which has been softened in the micro for 30 sec. to the egg mixture and blend thoroughly.

4. Sprinkle 1 tsp. cinnamon & 1 tsp. nutmeg over the bread and then pour the egg and cream cheese mixture over the bread slices and stir to combine. Make sure the bread is saturated. Allow to sit and absorb 3-5 mins.

5. Stir in the 1 cup diced peaches & 1/4 cup pecans to the bread and egg mixture.

6. While the bread is soaking up the eggs place 12 foil jumbo sized muffin cups on a cookie sheet and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

7. Add 1 tbsp. of Maple Syrup to each muffin cup

8. Scoop the bread, egg, peach & pecan mixture into each muffin cup fill 3/4 full.

9. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 mins. Until the cupcakes are puffy and golden. They should spring back when touched.

10. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes

11. While the cupcakes are baking you can cook your bacon and make the frosting.

12. Once the bacon is cooked drain on paper towels.

13. For the frosting combine 8oz of room temperature Philly Cream Cheese and 1 stick (1/2 cup) of unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium high till creamed and fluffy. About 3 minutes.

14. Add 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup to the butter and cream cheese and blend well.

15. Add 4 cups of powdered sugar one cup at a time to the mixture and blend.

16. Set the frosting in the fridge till ready to frost the cupcakes

17. After the cupcakes have cooled 5 to 10 min. slather them liberally with the maple cream cheese frosting and top with a piece of bacon.

Of course I already told you that I made a change by adding bacon bits as sprinkles. One other change that I made was that we did not use peaches or nuts (although I am sure it would have taken this confection to a whole other level of deliciousness!) because my children don't care for either item. We substituted cinnamon chips (1/2 of a 10 oz. bag) and it was divine!

All in all this is a fabulous recipe. Easy to follow, had all the ingredients in my pantry and didn't make a mess out of the whole kitchen. I would highly recommend this for a brunch or a lazy sunday morning. Hope that the teachers at Bailey Bridge Middle School like them as much as we did because they are definitely going to the teacher appreciation breakfast!

Searching for Gourmet Items

Wow it has been a VRY BZY summer! For not having

any real plans in June, I find myself faced with the waning days of summer and the impending B'nai Mitvot of my younger 2 children, Sydney and Jarrett. I have have cooked some really interesting food, assisted with a friend's retirement party and catered a Bat Mitzvah Oneg (dessert). The photos from the desserts are on Facebook. We made delicious Carrot Cupcakes with Candied Carrot Sprinkles and Chocolate Cupcakes with Bittersweet chocolate/rum ganache. Totally decadent!

I was recently gifted with an enormous box of fresh-picked Virginia Peaches. They are FABULOUS but ripened all too quickly and all at once! This led me on a search for how to best preserve them without canning or a recipe to use them in, that I can freeze for later in the fall.I began my search with Cupcakeproject.com. I am a devoted follower of this lady. I highly recommend her blog, as her hubby is a photographer and the pictures are worth drooling over. She's very creative and I have borrowed quite a few great ideas from her.

Which leads me to today's post. About a week ago, Cupcakeproject was waxing poetic about a spread that she had tasted and used on some peach cupcakes (more to follow in another post!) She was gushing that the spread tasted like Biscoff Cookies in a spreadable form that one would be delirious over eating. For those of you who fly, you know that those Biscoff cookies are a treat; delicious bites of buttery cinnamony goodness! Some of you may even know them by their more common European name of "Spekuloos". Having just eaten those delicious little cookies on my way to and from Vegas, I was intrigued to say the least! Afterall, my sister had introduced me to the joys of Sunbutter, a peanutbutter-like spread that is made from sunflower seeds and can be used as a PB replacement, especially around people with nut allergies. And we had been eating Nutella for years, but a buttery, cinnamon spread with no nuts at all...it sounded to good to be true!

Cupcakeproject explained that she had received her jar of Tamarin Spread from the distributor as a sample to try (a good reason to get my blog up to snuff and get in on those samples!) Cupcake project also explained that this spread is new to the states so if it is not found locally, it could be ordered via Amazon.com (another new thing I learned!) Since my curiosity got the better of me, I went to the Tamarin.com website to read more. Quite interested and still drooling, I clicked on "store locator" and entered my zip code. Amazingly enough, I found 2 locations within 30 miles of my home, where I might actually be able to purchase this product! I was becoming cautiously optimistic and trying to contain my enthusiasm each time I walked past the box of peaches. Wanting to share my joy, I mentioned all of this to my husband who just happened to be going in the direction of one of the 2 stores! Oh fate! Oh destiny! Oh Darn! I had to wait until MONDAY!!!

After a leisurely start to our week, my husband invited me to ride with him to his call and then to go to the market where the Tamarin spread waited for my arrival. I called ahead to the store and was assured they had approximately 10 jars and that they would be there upon my arrival. We took off in a southwesterly direction traveling first to Victoria, VA and then onto Perk's Corner Market in Crewe, VA.

As we traveled farther into farmlands and then onto a two-lane road lined by endless rows of corn on both sides, I was hopeful that we would find a sweet little town with a few antique shops or maybe a great old house to photograph. Arriving in Victoria, we found a downtown that had been abandoned long ago, a Dollar General, a Food Lion supermarket and the Lunenburg County Free Clinic! Oh! and the State prison was just down the road apiece!

After hubby finished up at the clinic, we headed in the direction of Crewe, VA. "Perk's Corner Market" sounded awfully quaint and we did see quite a few more restored homes as we approached. We also saw an enormous train yard and a couple of florists. What an interesting combination! We turned onto the main street again, only to see a lot of abandoned buildings as well as cars but not too many folks out and about. As hubby stated that he would turn around, I spied it out of the corner of my eye! Perk's Corner Market! Located in a building that was once part of a gas station! The old pumps stood out front broken and forgotten. We were incredulous!

Hubby thought for sure I had gotten the information wrong and insisted on driving around the block. No such luck, this was the place. I exited from the car and went inside. A friendly, busty, young lady with some of her teeth yelled "hey y'all" as I entered and asked "whatcha need?" When I explained what I was looking for she pointed me in the direction of the Peanutbutter. Sure enough, located next to the Peanutbutter, the fishing lures, ammo, bait and Vienna Sausages, was my coveted prize! They really did have 10 jars, too. The young lady told me that she didn't think any of them knew what it was, they "never sold none" and had no idea how they came to have it! I purchased 4 jars and was gifted with a fifth. I emerged from the store, victorious, and watched my hubby doubled over with laughter in the car.

Riding home through hill and dale, passing Confederate Flag draped trucks and chicken farms, we cracked the first jar open and dipped in some pretzels. Heaven....yep, heaven in a jar. Next week when hubby goes back to the clinic, we will help the folks at Perk's Corner Market move a little more inventory. I'm buying the last 5 jars. Keep checking to see what we make with it (if I can keep the kids from eating too much of it!)