Bacon Maple Cupcakes

My brother had a birthday over the break too. This was the first year that he had to work on his birthday and since his birthday is early January he never went to school on his birthday either. So he wanted to take in something for all of his co-workers. So I made him bacon maple cupcakes.

Maple Bacon Cupcakes:

 Cake:

Chocolate box cake mix and ingredients to make it (or any chocolate cake recipe)

4 strips of bacon chopped finely

2 Tbsp of maple syrup (optional)

Icing:

1 (8 ox) package of cream cheese

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

2 cups powdered sugar

1 Tbsp maple flavoring

½ tsp vanilla extract

Maple syrup (optional)

Directions:

Make the cake mix like it says on the box. Add in the chopped bacon and maple syrup. Bake according to the directions on the box. Let cool.

In a mixing bowl, cream the soften butter and cream cheese together. Add in the maple flavoring and then the powdered sugar. Add powdered sugar or more maple flavoring if needed. Ice the cupcakes and place some more chopped bacon on top.

He loved this cupcakes and the ones he took into work were all gone very quickly. They sound a little weird and some people may be apprehensive but they are delicious!!

Snow Globe Cake

Hi everyone,
Well I am still in the middle of academics but I have made a few cakes over the winter holiday that i wanted to share with you. For my mom's and grandma's birthday I tried to make a special cake just for them. This is my snow globe cake. It is just a two layer gluten free cake cover in cream cheese icing. I put shredded coconut on the sides because it looks like snow and the birthday girls love it. The snowman is made out of fondant. Three white balls are stacked on top of each other with a flat red strand around the neck for a scarf. And also a black top hat and a small orange cone for the nose. I put the buttons and the eyes on by using a toothpick and dipped it in black food coloring and just put the dots on.
The tree was my favorite. You just take an ice cream cone (I had two on top of each other but you could just use one) and then using a star tip, start at the bottom and pipe little stars then pull out making the leaves. I used my thumb and first two fingers to hold the inside of the cone and worked my way up to the top which made it easier to hold. Once the tree was all piped, I used a sifter to dust powdered sugar to look like snow and add sprinkles as ornaments.When I was done with all of the decorations, I placed them on the cake wherever I wanted. I then put a bowl upside down over the tree and snowman for the top of the globe. You have to make sure that the tree will fit into the bowl before you try to put it on top. Now the last thing that I did was put a little bit of icing on the very top of the bowl, well actually the bottom of the bowl but the top of the globe, and put more coconut on top. I only did this because the globe would have been flat on the top and the coconut just gives it a rounder look. My mom and grandma loved this cake and I hope you do too!