Bacon, maple syrup and dark chocolate cupcakes

Ok, time for a re-launch!!! It's been way too long since I have put my focus and energy into something that I'm truly passionate about so I've decided to completely put 100% into exploring new flavours, tastes and techniques. I was watching tv on Sunday morning and one of the guests mentioned a book called 'The Flavour Thesaurus'. I had a little browse on amazon and came across the book. I instantly pushed the buy now button and four days later it arrived!

I began reading and instantly started getting inspired about how I can incorporate what was on paper into lovely bite sized portions of exploration and total yummy ness! I am planning on cooking something from each subsection from each chapter.

Chapter one, roasted flavours. Chocolate.

Reading through the chocolate subsection I came across the combination of chocolate and bacon. I know, sounds a bit weird but I thought I would give it a go in the form of a maple syrup cupcake with dark chocolate topped with crispy smoked bacon.

I looked online for a maple syrup cupcake recipe and found a beaut.

I made a normal cupcake batter with some maple syrup and added dark chocolate chips, baked for 20 minutes. As soon as they were out of the oven I drizzled some more maple syrup over the top so it seeped through the sponge.

The buttercream icing had some maple syrup added to it also, but just enough so it can still be held together.

I cut all the fat I could off the bacon (I used smoked back bacon) so it wouldn't be greasy when eating and cooked it until it was nice and crispy.

I assembled them and this was the final product! They were a hit with the whole family and all were very surprised that the combination worked so well together! I would definitely recommend this to anyone.