Cupcakes Benedict - Maple Cupcakes Topped with Black Forest Bacon, Poached Eggs, and Maple Hollandaise Sauce

While cupcakes get some frosting lovin' on a regular basis, sometimes they get jealous of English muffins (or as I call them, stud muffins). Stud muffins are a key player in Eggs Benedict, where they are topped with bacon, eggs, and drippy, buttery hollandaise.  Cupcakes are used to playing it safe with perfectly coiffed frosting, but after years of dreaming, they were ready to get a little dirty.  They came to me for help and I arranged a cupcake and Eggs Benedict liaison - Cupcakes Benedict.


Start with jumbo, Texas-sized cupcakes (a regular-sized cupcake isn't big enough to please its new partner).  You can use any flavor cupcakes that you like - but I recommend maple cupcakes (see the recipe below).

Top the cupcake with the sweetest bacon you can find.  I used Black Forest bacon.  Don't overcook it.  The cupcakes don't like bacon that's all shriveled up.

Top the bacon with a poached egg.  It takes a bit of practice to learn how to make a poached egg.  If you've never made one before, check out the tutorial from Simply Recipes and purchase more eggs than you will need - you will undoubtedly waste some in the learning process.  Because the eggs won't be fully cooked, I highly recommend Safest Choice pasteurized eggs to those concerned about food safety (which may be you after reading the Safest Choice page about egg safety myths). You can eat Safest Choice eggs completely raw with no worries!  Getting sick from the eggs would totally kill the sexy moment.

Top the poached egg with maple Hollandaise sauce.  English muffins everywhere are now feeling a bit burnt with envy.  They are stuck with plain old Hollandaise - boring!

Grab a fork.

Dig in!

Maple Cupcake Recipe

Note: The cupcake shown in the photos above is an earlier version of the recipe below that I didn't like quite as much.  The recipe below will yield a slightly lighter-colored cake.  I wanted to let you know so that you don't over-bake your cupcakes trying to match the color in the photo.

Yield: 6 jumbo cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup real maple syrup
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperautre
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon maple extract (optional for a stronger maple flavor)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Mix in the sugar and maple syrup until fully combined.
4. Add the butter and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes.  
5. Mix in the eggs and vanilla until just combined.
6. Mix in the milk and maple extract until just combined.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or until cupcakes bounce back when lightly touched.

My Inspiration and Full Disclosure

My inspiration for this post came from a call put out by Sarah from Tastespotting for recipes using Safest Choice eggs.  If you have never been to Tastespotting, check it out now (unless you are really hungry).  It's a gallery of the best of the best food photos - all of which link to recipes.  Sarah told us that if she picked our Safest Choice egg idea, it would be featured on the top of Tastespotting for a month.  She picked these cupcakes and I was sent some egg coupons for writing the post.