Oscar Winners Don't Eat This

I had some people over to watch the Oscars. I served heavy hors d'oeuvres that everyone pitched in to put together. I wanted to try something new for dessert and came across this recipe. The detail sparked my interest. I won't lie, it took a couple trips to a couple different stores to find all the ingredients. The recipe was so detailed I felt I needed to follow it exactly (which really isn't my style). I sifted all the dry ingedients.Chopped the 85% cocoa bar that was in my Valentine's care package. Then I folded it into the batter. That's right. I'm still using Meaghan's mixer. At this rate she may never get it back. This was the densest cupcake batter I've ever made. It was closer to brownie batter. There was enough batter to fill 15 cups. The recipe calls for the cupcakes to be baked for 30 minutes but I think that was too long.

While the cupcakes baked, I fried the bacon, saved the drippings and browned the butter. That lovely combo went into the fridge to chill. I made sure my dinner guests didn't see the congealed concoction when I pulled it out and started adding all the other ingredients to make the crazy and yet delicious icing. If you take a look at all that goes into these cupcakes, you will see that these are not pre-Oscar diet approved. My guests were tentative yet intrigued. Once they gave them a try, the cupcakes were a hit!