Cupcakes and Coffee? French Toast with Maple Buttercream and bacon!

Today was my husband's day to take breakfast to work, as they rotate weekly and he said he wanted to bring something home made.  Cupcakes are great but I'm unsure if they can satisfy a hungry team so he decided to order regular breakfast and bring in an extra "treat."  That was until he requested my rum cake AND cupcakes.  Sure honey, I have nothing to do today but bake at the last minute, clean the house, make dinner (this was at 5pm)...you got it!  I ended up making French toast with maple buttercream topped with crisp bacon.  I have to say, this is my favorite recipe yet.

I browsed the net for a while to find a recipe I thought would work best.  I saw one made of Bisquick and slightly altered, another for more of a spice cake.  Then I came across Bakespace.com (when I figure out to how link the title to her page, I gladly will) and loved the recipe she had posted.  I loved her even more when she said she isn't a huge fan of french toast because neither am I so she had me at hello.  Here it goes:

• Servings: 12
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted then cooled.
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. maple extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk

Note-I ALMOST overfilled the muffin cups.  I would suggest filling them just over halfway and they will bake up into a perfect dome.  The batter is thicker than most so don't be concerned.  It actually makes it easier to scoop up, I use a standard ice cream scoop for each one.  Also, I will add that I always sift everything from my flour to my sugar unless you use Baker's Sugar.  I truly believe it makes a huge difference, especially in your buttercream so you don't have small clumps.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with baking liners.

Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a mixing bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar, and eggs until combined. Then add maple extract.

Alternate between whisking in flour mixture and milk into your liquid mixture. Make three additions of flour and two of milk. Beat until smooth.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown and tops spring back when lightly touched.

Cool cupcakes for 10 minutes, remove from pan and allow to cool completely before frosting.

**These were dense enough that I pulled them right out of the pan and onto the cooling rack. I know it sounds silly but I am always worried that the extra two minutes will over bake them.  

I made a combination of recipes for the Maple buttercream, but still was not "in love" with it so I will try something new.  I didn't use Maple extract and I think I will next time, to enhance the flavor but it was still great topped with bacon and cinnamon!

Maple Buttercream

1 cup butter

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Dash of Allspice

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Pipe onto cakes, sprinkle with cinnamon and add your bacon.  I guess you could say he is on everyone's good side today.  Happy Friday!