Cupfakery!

In case you don't frequent baking blogs, you really should know that there is a rash of cupfakery going on. I'm sure this is not the first time, since savory foods are always sneaking off to hang out with the sweets. (Chocolate covered pretzels, bacon chocolate bars, fries in milkshakes...) The first example of cupfakery I heard of was the now infamous meatloaf cupcakes. So when I saw that Willow Bird Baking had made a savory cupcake I wasn't surprised. Disturbed, yes. But not surprised. Eventually curiosity won out and I made some cupfakes of my own.



Cheddar Chive and Bacon Cupfakes with Avocado Frosting

Adapted from here.

I'll let you read the recipe over at Julie's site and just tell you what I did differently.

1. I didn't cook my onions in oil, I cooked them in the bacon grease. This not only added to the bacony-ness of the cupfakes but meant I had one less thing to buy at the store. Score!
2. I didn't have any lemon juice for the avocado frosting, so we kept it in a tupperware container and frosted as desired.
3. We were waiting on these to eat dinner, so we didn't let them cool.
4. Not having a frosting set, I used the classic trick of a ziploc baggy with the corner snipped.

My thoughts:

1. I had to resist the urge to add more bacon to the cupfakes. If you have a similar urge, restrain yourself. Julie has the bacon ratio just right here, don't mess with it. : )

2. I had my doubts about this avocado + cream cheese confection but I was pleasantly surprised. I actually told the hubby that should we ever find ourselves short on avocados to make guacamole with, we should remember this trick to stretch it.

3. On eating eating these straight out of the oven (still warm) and frosted my first thought was "sugar overload"! The sweetness wasn't so overwhelming once they had a chance to set, but I would probably still take out some of the sugar next time I make these.

4. While good, there were just way too many flavors going on. I found I preferred the cupfakes without the "frosting", not only did it reduce the sweetness but it allowed me to focus on the bacony, oiniony flavor of the cupfakes themselves. My husband liked the idea of the topping, but would have preferred our guacamole instead of the avocado + cream cheese confection.

5. I really liked the cupcake format for eating these, even though they would be equally good as biscuits. It just ups the cute factor!