OK, stay with me on this one, guys. Chocolate beer batter cupcakes. Maple bacon cream cheese frosting. Crunchy maple-glazed bacon bits. I know it all sounds strange (and a little wrong) on paper, but if you can wrap your mind around all the components and work up the nerve to take the first bite…these cupcakes are the bomb. Srsly, they will literally blow your mind.
If you’re a fan of “2 Broke Girls”, you probably recognize these cupcakes from the episode where Max and Caroline go on Spring Break. While house sitting for some clients, the girls make friends with a beer brewer and bacon maker; shenanigans ensue, and Max’s Beer Batter Maple Bacon Spring Bacon Cupcakes are born. Spoiler alert — they’re so good even Martha Stewart likes them. (“You know who would love these? Stoners” – Martha)
With that kind of endorsement, is it surprising that I wanted to try them for myself? The show didn’t provide any kind of recipe, but it wasn’t too hard to come up with my own. I already had a delicious chocolate beer batter cupcake recipe in my archives, and a half dozen cream cheese frostings that would be perfect with chocolate and bacon. As for the maple-glazed bacon strips…they were so good I wanted to inhale the whole plate by itself. But I didn’t. Because I have iron will power. And because my thighs don’t need all that extra greasy, sticky pork fat. But mainly because crunchy-sweet, crumbled bacon bits are absolutely phenomenal in these cupcakes.
Now, are you ready to take the first bite? OK, close your eyes. Sink your teeth in. Savor the rich, chocolate-y moistness of the cupcake. Feel the creamy sweetness of the frosting wrap itself around your tongue. Revel in the sweet, fattiness of the candied bacon bits as they crunch between your teeth. Mmm mmm mmmmmmmm.
Still not convinced? Then head on over to my friend Sarah’s blog and check out her amazing, swoon-worthy double chocolate bacon cupcakes — I guarantee you’ll quickly change your tune. Remember: candied bacon + chocolate…it’s what’s for dinner. And dessert. And breakfast.
- 1 cup Guinness
- 1 stick butter
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 2 cups flour
- 1-1/2 cups sugar
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- ⅔ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 strips bacon
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 8oz block cream cheese, softened
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp candied bacon drippings
- Preheat oven to 350. Line two muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.
- In a pot or large sauce pan, simmer the beer and butter on medium until butter is completely melted.
- Add cocoa powder and chocolate chips and stir until your mixture smooth. Take off heat and set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl, stir eggs and yogurt together until smooth. Slowly add chocolate mixture and vanilla.
- Add dry ingredients and stir until well combined.
- Spoon your batter into your lined muffin cups, about ½ (or just a little bit over) full.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Turn oven up to 375, and line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Lay your bacon strips across a baking rack and place the rack on the foil-lined baking sheet.
- Using a pastry brush, brush each strip of bacon with a layer of maple syrup.
- Bake for 10 minutes, basting strips again about half way into that time.
- Flip your strips over, baste, and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Baste your bacon one last time, and stick them back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
- While your cupcakes and bacon strips are cooling, start making your frosting. In a large bowl, beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth and well-incorporated.
- Add powdered sugar, maple syrup and bacon grease. Mix until smooth. (Add more powdered sugar, as necessary, to achieve desired consistency.)
- Spoon frosting into a piping bag, and frost each cupcake.
- Slice one piece of bacon into 1-inch strips and press one piece into each frosted cupcake.
- Crumble/chop up the rest of the candied bacon and sprinkle them on top of the cupcakes.
- Enjoy immediately, with a big glass of milk.
OK – I’m sold! What an incredible cupcake and a great sell! 🙂
Thanks!
I made these for my friends and family last night, WOW, AMAZING!I had people calling me this morning, begging for the recipe. As we speak, 2 of my friends and my mother in law are making them!!! This recipe will forever be my favorite!!!!!
That’s fabulous! Your comment made my day 🙂 so glad you and your friends/family liked the recipe!
These are amazing my whole family and all my friends beg me to make them soo good
what type of flour do you use?
Regular all-purpose flour, usually the Gold Medal brand.
Every Friday, I share my favorite food finds in a series called Food Fetish Friday. I love this post so much I’m featuring it as part of the roundup (with a link-back and attribution) and I hope you have no objections. It’s a pleasure following your creations…
I don’t mind at all — thank you for featuring another recipe!
My gf made these for my father for Fa ther’s Daynand they are absolutely delicious!!!! Highly recommended!
Awesome!
You don’t have to talk me in to it… I’m DOWN! 😀
Haha, that’s the spirit!
Just made this for my boyfriends birthday and he loves them! I used brown sugar and syrup which gave the bacon a little bit more bite. YUM. He said he would each of the components by itself. Imma go with that.
Haha, awesome! I actually used brown sugar + syrup the first time I tried making candied bacon for these cupcakes, but left them in the oven too long and they burnt to a crisp. Glad it turned out well for you!
I made these cupcakes yesterday. They are DELICIOUS!! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
My only issue is with the beer batter: I cannot taste the Guinness and that was a tad disappointing. I tried adding extra beer, and the batter of course changed consistency — was pretty liquidish — and still, they didn’t taste like Guinness. Any suggestions? I’m not looking for a strong Guinness taste, but at least a hit of flavor.
Thanks!!
I’m glad you liked the recipe! I’m honestly not sure about the Guinness flavor issue though — I could taste a hint of it in mine, but I don’t love beer so it’s possible I’m just extra sensitive to the taste. Have you heard of The Beeroness? Her whole blog is dedicated to cooking with beer, and she has a great dessert section, so maybe you’ll find an answer there. Hope that helps!
Thank you for the suggestion!
I’m making these right now, and I have extra Guiness hanging around, as SOON as they come out of the oven, I’m going to brush some Guiness on top of the hot cupcake with a pastry brush. That will allow the beer to absorb in the cake, and you’ll be able to taste it then. I do the same thing with my Bourbon Bacon Brownies. Pour on the bourbon STRAIGHT outta the oven, and you can taste it in every bite. DELISH!
Yum, that sounds like a fabulous idea! I’ll have to give that a try 🙂
I would try not cooking the guinness – melt the butter & add the guinness last to the butter/chocolate mixture.
The heat is probably cooking out that “beer” taste you are looking for!
Thanks for the tip! I will definitely give that a try 🙂
Made these for a big family party/BBQ and they were a HUGE hit!!! Fantastic!!! Thank you for having the imagination and the skills to make awesome recipes like this! Also… I may have doubled the bacon… haha… not so much for the cupcakes but for a snack for later! Mmmm Bacon…. You rock! Keep up the awesome work!
Haha thanks! And doubling the bacon strips? Love your style, girl!
Just made these cupcakes tonight, and oh my goodness. I almost cried with happiness they were so delicious! I think next time I make them, I will have to make a little extra frosting, almost ran out but so amazing. Thank you for the AWESOME recipe!
Extra frosting is always a good idea. I’m so glad you liked these cupcakes!
I haven’t made these cupcakes yet, but you have a recipe using yellow cupcakes?
I plan to make both.
Thank you 🙂
I haven’t tried it with candied bacon/cream cheese frosting, but this is my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe — https://www.justputzing.com/2012/03/strawberry-crepe-cupcakes.html. Hope you like it!
I want to make these this weekend for my husband’s 30th birthday party, which is bacon-themed. When we saw that episode of 2 Broke Girls, I knew I wanted to remember that idea and use it for a special occasion. I’m very glad I came across your recipe so I don’t have to experiment for such a special celebration. I was just wondering, how many normal-sized cupcakes does this recipe yield? I want to make sure every guest has at least one! Thanks!
Sorry for the late response — the comment went to spam for some reason! I don’t remember the exact number of cupcakes that came from this, but I think it was something like 1.5 dozen? Anyway, hope these turned out ok for you!
How do you get the frosting thick? Mine was so runny that I gave up and threw the cakes out 🙁
I’m sorry the recipe didn’t turn out well for you! Generally, if your frosting is still runny, you can add more powdered sugar to thicken it up. However, the recipe should have made pretty thick frosting, so I’m not sure what went wrong 🙁 Did you melt your butter? If yes, then I can see why your frosting was a little runny. The cream cheese and butter should have been room temperature when you creamed them together. Hope that helps!
No, I didn’t melt the butter. Butter and cream cheese were at room temperature :/ will try again!
Just had a quick question. I plan on making these tomorrow, but I moat likely won’t eat them all. how long do they stay fresh? And if I refrigerate them how long?
B/c these cupcakes are so moist, if you leave them out they will get moldy in about a week. If you store them in a tightly sealed container in the fridge, they will last longer. I stored mine in a fridge, and they were still fine by the time I ate the last one around the week-and-a-half mark.
Thanks for the tip! And they turned out great! Loved them!
Fabulous!
I’d love to try to make these cupcakes, they sound amazing! However, I’m not quite sure about the measurements since I’m used to cooking using grams and not of sticks and cups, do you know what the ingredients would be in grams?
Thank you =)
Thanks for your comment! Unfortunately I do not know off the top of my head what the ingredients would be in grams, as I do not usually work in that unit of measurement — sorry about that. But, I can tell you that 1 stick of butter is 1/2 a cup, and this website is very helpful in converting cups to grams. Hope that helps!
Hello. I made these last night and they were awesome! I did make a couple changes (additions) to the frosting. I added maple extract for a stronger maple flavor and added bacon grease. I ended up using a whole box of powdered sugar, but that’s OK. It was still a little runny to pipe the frosting, so I just used a spatula (it was 10:30pm so I wanted to go to bed!). The cake was a little dry (even the batter seemed a little drier than normal). Next time I will try a full cup of yogurt. Or should I try an extra egg? Also, have you tried this with a chocolate stout instead of Guinness? Thanks for posting this. It really was awesome! Oh, and I made 6 strips of candied bacon and chopped them up instead of slicing them. More bacon-y goodness. 😀
So glad you liked the recipe! Sorry the cupcakes turned out dry for you though — not sure why that happened b/c mine were almost too moist (and got moldy after a few days inside their tupperware when I forgot to stick it in the fridge, ugh). Your additions sound fabulous! I will definitely have to try the maple extract. And yes, bacon grease is key — I used the grease/drippings from the pan of candied bacon and it was amazingly delicious. Bacon makes everything better!
I made these today and everyone loves them (of course) but do you any chance have a substitition for the beer? My boss wants me to make them for some boys on a highschool football team he coaches but says to leave out the guiness taste.
How about coffee? I think that would go well with the other flavors. Alternatively, you can try using my double chocolate chop cookie dough cupcakes recipe for the chocolate cake base. Good luck!
What about soda? Or maybe soda water (that doesn’t have added sugar)? Cream soda seems like it would be really good, but would it make it too sweet?
Great suggestion – cream soda could be good! Maybe one of those chocolate-flavored cream sodas? Would possibly need to cut back on the sugar in the recipe if using a sweet soda substitute though.
A chocolate cream soda would be good. Maybe use unsweetened chocolate chips instead of the semi-sweet? I don’t know if cutting the sugar would change the end result.
I want to make these for my brother’s birthday on Tuesday but what I was wondering what kind of chocolate chips do you use? Unsweetened or semi sweet?
Semi-sweet. I generally use Nestle’s semi-sweet chocolate chips. Hope you like the cupcakes!
You definately want semi-sweet. As it is, when you taste the final chocolate mixture (before putting in the flour/sugar mixture) it will be so bitter you’ll wonder how the cupcakes are going to be anything but bitter. The sugar mixed in later makes it so good. A tad on the dark chocolate side, but not so bad you want to eat sugar out of the bag!
I was planning on making these for my husband’s upcoming birthday. Do you think you could substitute sour cream for the greek yogurt?
Definitely! I think the original recipe actually used sour cream. Hope your husband likes them!
hi! i live in asia and i’m not sure if i can find guinness in the super markets, can i use other beer brands? thanks in advance 🙂
You can definitely use other brands of beer. I don’t know which brands your store carries, but I think any darker/heavier beer would be a good substitute. Good luck!
I made these tonight, and they were AWESOME! I burnt the bacon into a blackened mess on the first try, but did it again and they turned out wonderfully! (I would gladly sit and eat the 22 I have left without sharing!) I’m planning on making a double batch to take back to college with me next month! Thank you so much for the recipe!!
Thanks for reading! I’m so glad you liked the cupcakes 🙂 I definitely burned my first batch of bacon too — who knew you had monitor them in the oven, huh? Anyway, hope the people at your college like these too, and happy holidays!
Do you have the metric weight conversions so I can give these ago for my Dad’s birthday?
I’m sorry, I don’t know the conversions off the top of my head, but if you google “metric weight conversions” there are some wonderful online calculators you can use. Good luck!
Hi! i really want to try this cupcakes, but where i live is not as easy to find greek yogurt.. any substitutes? natural yogurt?
thanks!!
and greetings from Mexico!
Hi there! You definitely do not have to use Greek yogurt. Any kind of yogurt is fine. Or, you can use sour cream. I think pretty much any thick, creamy substance will work. Good luck! Let me know how this turns out for you!
Do you think I could use a strongbow frosting? To mimick the crown float drink?
I’ve also never done a glaze on the bacon. Will it still have the salty taste?
Hmm, I bet you could do a strongbow frosting. Maybe replace the bacon drippings with a few tsp of strongbow? And yeah, the glazed bacon is still salty, but the glaze adds sweetness. So it’s kind of a sticky/sweet/salty treat.
Hi I was just wondering if I could use sour cream instead of greek yogurt? Thank you!
Absolutely! The original recipe actually did use sour cream – I swapped it with greek yogurt b/c I don’t like sour cream 🙂
Awsome!!! Thank you so much!!!
Amazing, I just made these and they are just incredible! I have also spent the time looking at your other recipes and they also look phenomenal so will have to try those too! X
Thanks! I’m so glad you liked the recipe. Come back soon!
Hi there,
First of all, you’ve got an amazing site, thank you for all the great recipes!
I want to make these cupcakes tomorrow, but I read somewhere in the comments that you use bacon drippings out of a pan? Do you bake the bacon first in a pan and then stick them in the oven? Btw, a great converter to the metric system is http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking/
Thanks!
Hello! Thanks for your comment. If you look at the recipe, you’ll see that I cook the bacon in the oven only. The drippings I refer to are the oily discharge collected in the baking sheet/pan as the bacon cooks in the oven. I just scooped a few spoonfuls of that out of the sheet/pan and mixed that into my frosting. Hope that helps!
ahh, finally i have found an understandable recipe for these cupcakes i am sooooo ridiculously excited to make these! thank you! x
I’m from England and am wondering how much a “stick” of butter is. A normal block here is about 250g but that seems way to excessive for cupcakes!
Great question! I should have realized ingredients are sold in different quantities in other countries. A standard American “stick” of butter is approximately 113g. Hope that helps!
Just seen this after my comment – thanks!
Thanks for this recipe! Right now, the cupcakes are baking but I sampled the first set to come out, and just the cupcake is great, so I can imagine it’s going to be amazing with the bacon and frosting!
One thing I wanted to mention is that you may want to warn people to be sure to only fill the liners halfway- about a third of my first batch were unfrostable because they had overflowed the liners. My fault, but I thought it was worth mentioning!
Of course, this could just be an altitude issue since I live in Colorado!
Ahh, good to know! Thanks 🙂
I was wondering if you HAVE to use a blender for the icing, I don’t own one and due to budget issues i can’t afford one…. will mixing them together do the same?
Hey there! You definitely do not have to use a blender or mixer for the icing. Those help make everything extra smooth, but half the time I can’t be bothered to clean extra equipment, so I just use a large spoon or spatula to mix the frosting ingredients.
Just a heads up i did have to cook mine for around 30 mins (extra 15 mins) i don’t know if it is my oven or what but after the 2nd 15 mins they were perfact! 😀
PFT you had me at beer and bacon. Haha. I am making this tomorrow. can’t wait!
Oh, I was wondering, what type of flour did you use? AP flour or Cake flour?
🙂
All purpose. Hope these turn out well for you!
Have you tried making this as a cake? Besides adjusting the baking times, would I want/need to do anything else? I was thinking two 9″ rounds…
No, I haven’t tried making this as a cake but I think that’s a great idea. It’s been a while, so I’m not sure if this makes enough batter for two 9″ rounds. What if you made a double batch of the batter, and then made 3 layers?
I like how you think! 🙂
It will probably be a while before I make it again. I love these cupcakes and even dream about them, but my coworkers don’t seem to like them as well as I do.
Just means more for you!
Hey,
I really, really want to make these, saw them on 2 broke girls and thought yum! They sound great!
Now, I probably going to sound a little thick but…how many g or oz is a stick of butter??
Hey there! 1 stick of butter is 4oz or 113.4g. Hope that helps!
I made this recipe and it made 72 cupcakes! Yummy! 🙂
Good to know, thanks!
Exactly what I’m looking for and what I’ll be making this weekend. This recipe is so going to make me the Super Woman amongst the guys 🙂
Curious if there’s any particular reason that led you to mix cocoa powder & chocolate chip together?
Just wanted extra chocolate-y goodness 🙂
I love this cupcake! I made this recipe many many times. One problem i had with this recipe is the bacon always burned. It was inedible. I tried another method where i lined the frying pan with foil and do the baking there with a lid cover on top and within minutes they started to burn. Please help!
Hmmm, I’m not sure what’s going on there, but maybe you can try lowering the temperature of your oven? Or, possibly try baking the bacon plain for a few minutes, and add the syrup towards the end of the cooking period? Let me know if either of those options works!
what could I use instead of greek yogurt !!!! please answer ASAP
Sour cream! Hope that wasn’t too late 🙁
As I’m a vegetarian I have to exclude bacon from my recipe, so they won’t be the same, but for sure I’ll give them a try. Thanks for the instructions!
Thanks for reading! Hope you like the recipe 🙂
Just wondering if there are any conversions that have to be made if I try to turn this recipe into a cake instead..?
Hmm, not in terms of the cake part – you will just need to adjust the baking time (I’d say double it). Depending on how you frost it, you made need to make a bigger batch of frosting/bacon too. Let me know how it turns out!
Hi there! I made this and it was pretty darn amazing! My brothers and I (and our friends) loved it! I even wrote about it on my blog. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Thanks for reading! I’m so glad you liked the recipe 😀 Your pictures are beautiful.
Can you use box cake mix to make the cupcakes
You probably could, but I’m not sure exactly how you’d work the beer into the batter (maybe substitute beer for water in the instructions?). Of course, you could leave the beer out altogether and just have regular chocolate cupcakes with maple bacon frosting!
It’s really mouth watering.On behalf of srikrishna janmastami i am going to prepare this delicious item.Thanks a lot
Hay, I’m from Germany and my question is: What means a stick of butter? 😀
Hi Anne! 1 stick of butter equals 4oz or 1/4lb. Hope that helps!
Cupcake for me and the best .. very good his post.
can you make this using a different beer?
Yes, but I’m not sure how that would affect the flavor. Let me know if you try it!
does it need to be Guinness beer?
Nope, any stout beer would work!
Do you use salted butter for the frosting?