Brian Boitano Makes Cupcakes

Those of you who know who Brian Boitano is may best remember him as the ice-dancing superhero forever immortalized in song in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Un-Cut:

Those of you who remember him because of his 1988 Olympics gold medal victory probably didn't graduate from high school in 2002. Just sayin'!

Regardless of how you know who he is, his new cooking show on the Food Network (What Would Brian Boitano Make?) is well worth watching.

I caught it Saturday afternoon, thoroughly convinced it would be as terrible as the rest of their new line-up (anyone see this??).

Instead of witnessing the inevitable hot-tranny-mess-car-wreck I was planning for, I actually found myself laughing out loud at Brian's fab-u-loussssss sense of humor and dying to make the mini bacon corn cupcakes with cream cheese chive frosting he whipped together for the local Roller Derby team.

Okay, so he called them muffins, but you can't have frosting on a muffin! I'm sorry friends, but that's how you know you're eating a cupcake.

I really wanted to post the clip for you, but I guess you'll just have to catch the rerun on Food Network instead. I imagine you'll have no problem finding it seeing how Food Network only airs 3 hours a week of new shows before they start repeating on loop.

So, in answer to the question, Brian Boitano would make these cupcakes. In asnwer to What Would Melissa Herald Do...? I'd eat these cupcakes, obvi!!

Ingredients

(recipe from www.foodnetwork.com)
For Muffins (or cupcakes, whatever)

8 strips bacon
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon reserved bacon fat

For Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 bunch chives, sliced
Special equipment:
2 (24-count) nonstick mini muffin tins
Pastry Bag

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Place bacon onto a baking sheet and bake until crisp about 12 minutes. Remove from baking sheet and place onto a plate lined with a paper towel. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat. Once bacon is cool enough to handle, chop into small pieces.
Spray a 24-count mini muffin tray with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl combine flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and brown sugar. In a separate bowl whisk the milk and egg. Whisk the milk mixture, melted butter and bacon fat into the dry ingredients. Add 3/4 of the chopped cooked bacon, reserve remaining 1/4 for a garnish.

Fill each muffin cup with 1 tablespoon of the batter so the cups are filled about 3/4 of the way up. Bake in oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the muffins comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before icing.

While muffins are cooling, in a medium bowl beat the cream cheese, honey and hot sauce with a hand mixer until soft and combined. Add 3/4 of the sliced chives, reserve remaining 1/4 for a garnish. Mix until well combined.

Transfer mixture to a pastry bag and snip off the end.

Once the muffins have cooled, pipe a small amount of the cream cheese mixture on top of each one. Garnish with remaining crumbled bacon and remaining chopped chives.