Step 1

For the Cupcakes

Step 2

Pre­heat your oven 350 degrees F.

Step 3

Sift the flour, bak­ing pow­der, bak­ing soda, salt, and gin­ger together. Set aside.

Step 4

Beat the but­ter and sugar on medium speed in a large bowl until they are fluffy.

Step 5

Add in eggs, syrup and vanilla. Mix until blended.

Step 6

Then mix in the flour mix­ture alter­nat­ing with the but­ter­milk. Do about one-third of the flour and then one-third of the but­ter­milk, and so on. Add the nuts if using.

Step 7

Fill muf­fin or cup­cake tins, either lined or but­tered, accord­ing to your pref­er­ence. Cook for approx­i­mately 20 min­utes or until your tester comes out clean.

Step 8

Cool totally.

Step 9

For the Frosting

Step 10

Beat the soft­ened but­ter, cream cheese, brown sugar and salt in a medium-sized bowl until fluffy. Once again, it is crit­i­cal that your ingre­di­ents be softened.

Step 11

While you keep beat­ing, add both the maple syrup and the vanilla.

Step 12

Slowly add the con­fec­tion­ers’ sugar and grad­u­ally increase the speed to high. Con­tinue beat­ing until the icing is fluffy.

Step 13

Chill the maple-butter frost­ing for one hour before using.

Step 14

For the Bacon

Step 15

Pre­heat oven to 400°F. Line rimmed bak­ing sheet with foil. Place rack in cen­ter of foil. Lay bacon slices on rack. Sprin­kle 1 table­spoon maple sugar evenly over bacon. Bake until sugar is melted, about 8 min­utes. Sprin­kle remain­ing 1 table­spoon sugar over same side of bacon. Bake until bacon is deep brown and glazed, 12 to 14 min­utes longer. Remove from oven.

Step 16

Pre­heat broiler. Broil bacon until sugar on top bub­bles thickly, watch­ing closely to pre­vent burn­ing, 1 to 2 min­utes. Cool bacon com­pletely on rack. Cut into 1/4-inch dice.