This week, while waiting for a bus on my daily commute, I decided to see if there were any little cookbooks I could download to my Kindle.  The first thing I found was The Sweet Little Book of Cupcakes by Nicholas Peruzzi.  And man, were there some yummy-sounding cupcakes in this book, with some flavor combinations I had never thought of before!

The first cupcake that immediately drew me in (there were many) was  Buttermilk Pancake Cupcake.  It is exactly what it sounds like – buttermilk pancake batter, tweaked slightly, and then baked just like a cupcake.  And, of course, if you have pancakes you just MUST have syrup, so I added some maple syrup frosting on top.  Not one to let breakfast just glide away so plainly, I decided to add some crumbled crunch bacon on top, because bacon makes EVERYTHING better! 🙂

When I decided to make this recipe, it said it only made 12 cupcakes.  Now that, for me and my coworkers who get to eat the fruits of my labor, is a bit ridiculous; so I decided to go for mini-cupcakes so I would have enough to satisfy everyone!

Now, I haven’t made mini-cupcakes all that often, and I was concerned about overfilling them.  What I did above was a little under – I should’ve put a little more filling in each, as they turned out as teeny little mini-cupcakes.

Regardless, the cupcakes were good – adding the maple frosting made them better, and adding the bacon on top of that… pure heaven.

Buttermilk Pancake Cupcakes (from The Sweet Little Book of Cupcakes by Nicholas Peruzzi)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg

1.  Preheat oven to 325 (for mini-cupcakes) or 350 (for regular cupcakes)
2. Line muffin tins with paper liners
3. Sift the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) together in a medium bowl.
4. In a mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg, buttermilk, and melted butter until combined (and not curdled looking).
5. Slowly add the flour mixture to the buttermilk mixture until fully combined.
6. Scoop the batter into the prepared cupcake pan.
7. Bake mini-cupcakes for 16 minutes;  Bake regular cupcakes for 20 minutes.  In both cases a pick inserted into the cupcake should come out clean when done.
8. Remove from pan and cool on a rack.

Maple Frosting Recipe (from some random site – I didn’t make the one in the book because I didn’t have maple extract, but I DID have maple syrup).

• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 3 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 3 cups powdered sugar

1.  In a mixer with a paddle attachment, mix butter and maple syrup until combined.
2. Slowly add powdered sugar to butter mixture and mix until combined.  May add more or less powdered sugar if necessary to achieve desired texture.