Sweet of the Week: Maple-Bacon Cupcake at Sprinkles

If there are two food trends that have jumped the shark, it's cupcakes and bacon. Together, they'll often elicit unenthusiastic eye rolls. Although cupcakes and bacon-flavored everything are both still very much a part of the culinary lexicon in America, they've made way for other more prominent fixtures like doughnuts, fried croissants, and macarons. This is what makes Sprinkles' maple-bacon cupcake such a surprise. Despite all odds, the cupcake manages to tackle the tired trends and make them deliciously relevant once more. One bite of this well balanced, sweet-meets-savory confection and you'll be a believer all over again. 

 

As far as I'm concerned, Sprinkles remains one of the best spots in Chicago for cupcakes. Sure it's an outsider imported from the West Coast, but I respect the shop for its straightforward formula and their all-important frosting techniques, which makes the cupcakes easy to eat without being too obnoxiously sweet. This is even true of such heinous-sounding items as their maple-bacon cupcake, a menu special for March. Billed as the shop's first savory cupcake, it's made with a bacon-infused Madagascar bourbon vanilla cake, topped with a maple cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with bacon crumbles and fleur de sel. Sounds aggressive, but goes down oh so smooth. Altogether, everything works in smooth tandem, the bacon tempering the sweetness of the cake and the tang of the cream cheese in subtle contrast of the maple syrup. It's a harmonious dessert that serves to buck the current trends by whole-heartedly embracing the trends of yore, reminding us why we loved them in the first place. 

- Matt Kirouac