Are you familiar with the appetizer “Devils on Horseback”? While there are many variations, the basic idea includes dates wrapped in bacon then stuffed with some sort of cheese and/or nut. I wanted to take this time-tested recipe and use it in a new way... and what more fitting way than to reimagine this classic as a dessert? So today we have Bacon, Date, and Goat Cheese Cupcakes:
Bacon, Date, and Goat Cheese Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- Eggs, oil, water called for on back of mix
- 24 dates, pitted
- 2 oz goat cheese
Frosting (adapted from Vermont Creamery)
- 4 oz goat cheese
- 4 oz butter, softened
- 5c powdered sugar
- 2T milk
- 3oz cooked and crumbled bacon (or if you, like me, decided to be lazy, a bottle of bacon bits)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tin with 24 cupcake liners.
- Slice each date down one side, so they open up... kind of like a clam shell.
- Stuff each date with a bit of goat cheese, and give each a little squeeze to kind of close it up and keep the cheese in there.
- Make cake batter as directed and distribute evenly into cupcake liners.
- Press a goat cheese filled date into each cupcake, and make sure each are covered with batter.
- Bake as directed and let cool. Meanwhile…
- Cream together the butter and goat cheese until combined.
- Add powdered sugar and milk and whip on high until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes, and sprinkle each with a bit o’ bacon.
It’s a bacony cupcake with a surprise inside! Fun, easy, and definitely a way to mix things up when it comes to sweet and savory. Next time you need to bring an appetizer to an affair, bring these and see what happens.