Everything's Better With Bacon

A few weeks ago I got a Facebook message from my friend Heather that read: "Save the Date - BACON PARTY". Oh my. Email spam marketers can learn from this - if you want people to open your emails, forget about subject lines like "Get a bigger penis" or "Free Money from Nigeria"; just go with BACON PARTY and I'm sure you will have a 100% open-rate. The only thing better than bacon is a party celebrating this glorious meat.

The plan was simple enough - every couple/family attending the party was asked to bring a bacon dish and it didn't matter if it was an app, main dish, side dish, dessert or beverage as long as it featured bacon. Naturally, my bacon-senses starting tingling. I could bring a dip, but was I up for a real challenge? I put the feelers out to the Twitterverse: "what should I bring to a BACON PARTY"... the answers flooded in, but the one that immediately caught my attention was the combination of two of my favorite words: Bacon + Cupcakes. GAH. The thought alone almost made me fall out of my seat.

So I set out to embark upon this mission... the mission to merge the perfect crispy saltiness of bacon with the sweet decadence of a cupcake...

The recipe Maple Bacon Cupcakes came from Bacon Today (yeah, I know), and in actuality is pretty straight forward. When you think about it, the flavor isn't all that strange. Think Sunday brunch with pancakes, bacon and syrup all piled high, cut up and eaten in one bite. After I made the cake part, I felt they were almost a little bland. The recipe did note that the frosting was extra sweet - but I would add more sugar to the batter if I made these again. Trying to think of something to really pump up these bad boys, I started thinking about an interesting topping. In the pictures on Bacon Today, they showed the cupcakes topped with a piece of bacon, but since I was worried they were not sweet enough, I wanted a candy topper. That's where the Bacon Toffee came in...

Before Saturday, I had never candied anything before, but it was actually fairly simple. The end result? Simply AMAZING. Honestly, if you ever make bacon flavored anything in the future, make this. The taste is simply mind numbing. Some may say it's the ultimate in "umami", but I just say OHMYYUM.

One of the best parts of the party was how excited all of the guests were about it. Everyone outdid themselves with thoughtful presentations and creative ideas. From Bacon Vodka to be used in an "Oinker Shooter" (oyster shooter) to bacon wrapped pork bites (bacon ON bacon!), everything was really delicious. Our only disappointment was that no one attempted BACON EXPLOSION. Oh well, there is always a next time.