Breakfast is THE most important meal of the day as it sets the tone and mood for anything that follows. Even my 2-year-old daughter and her buddies at her daycare have a little breakfast club going, where they sit and eat and chat for ages. That means, if even the little ones know how amazing breakfast can be, then this is one of the eternal truth we should all agree upon. I would bet, if you offer them these French toast cupcakes they would be happily devouring them.
Now, sadly breakfast literally means breaking the fast since dinner, which means you can only do it once a day, that means we have to become creative to enjoy this meal all day long. Therefore it makes sense to make French toast cupcakes, it turns this all time breakfast favorite of mine into a wonderful dessert.
Yes, this recipe for French toast cupcakes does include bacon, just like the real French toast breakfast would, but don’t worry. Bacon in a sweet cake is actually pretty amazing. It adds this magically twist to it, like you wouldn’t believe it until you had it. I was generally skeptical of bacon in sweet dessert dishes until I had a eureka moment: the first time I had a bacon vanilla milkshake during a visit to Asheville, North Caroline. A place, which you should definitely add to your travel to do list as soon as possible. It’s vibrant, outdoorsy and full of Southern hospitality.
Wanna go for the real deal. Check out my French Toast recipe on Mareike’s Cozy Corner (insert link). Here is also my tip for the best French Toast I ever had in my entire life. If you ever find yourself in New Orleans, check out the Ruby Slipper. Their French Toast is to die for, especially if you get it with their amazing candy bacon. That’s to say their Chicken St. Charles eggs benedict are also unbelievably tasty.
At a glance
- Servings: 12
- Calories per servings: shhh, dessert calories shouldn’t be mentioned, it brings bad luck
- Preparation time: 30 min
- Oven time: 20 min
- Cooling down time: 30 min
- Start to finish: 1 hr 20 min
Ingredients for the cupcakes
- 10 strips of streaky bacon
- 3 eggs
- 6 ounces (170 grams) of butter
- 7 ounces (200 grams) of sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla aroma
- 6 ounces (170 grams) of flour
- 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- 3.5 ounces (100 ml) of whole fat milk
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
Ingredients for the cream
- 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of room-temperatured butter
- 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of cream cheese
- 7 ounces (200 grams) of powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons of maple syrup
How to prepare French toast cupcakes
Step 1: First step on your way to having delicious French toast cupcakes is preparing the bacon. Place the strips in a cold pan and then bring it up to medium heat. Cook the bacon until crispy, then place it on a paper towel. Let the bacon cool down a little and then fold the paper towel and crush the bacon inside into little bits.
Step 2: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/175 degrees Celsius. Since baking is essentially chemistry, make sure you do wait until the oven has reached the desired temperature as you thereby get the best outcome.
Step 3: Separate the eggs and beat the egg white until stiff. Then combine the egg yolk, butter, sugar and vanilla in a separate bowl until creamy. Mix in the flour, baking powder and salt, then add the milk, nutmeg and cinnamon. The last step is carefully adding the egg white and 2/3 of the crunchy bacon bits with a spatula, so you end up with a fluffy dough.
Step 4: Place 12 paper cups in the molds of a muffin baking dish. Evenly distribute the dough into the 12 paper cups. Bake the French toast cupcakes in the oven for 15 minutes.
Step 5: While the cupcakes are in the oven, it’s time to prepare the cream. For this, simply mix the room temperatures butter with the powdered sugar and the maple syrup. Beat the cream with a handmixer for 5-7 minutes. Why so long, you might ask. Well, the longer you do that, the fluffier the texture of your cream. Place the result in the fridge to chill until the French toast cupcakes have cooled down enough after baking. This will take at least 30 min. Don’t rush it, otherwise your cream will melt from any residue heat in the mini cakes.
Step 6: Now the grand finale a.k.a. the icing on the cake hahaha: apply the cream frosting on the French toast cupcakes. My preferred go to method for this is using a simple plastic bag, fill it with the cream, cut one of the bottom edges open. It makes it super easy to apply the cream or icing.
