BaconScotch.com | Bacon & Scotch | Bacon | Scotch | Bacon Recipes | Scotch Drinks

Cupcake Royale Irish Whiskey Maple Bacon Cupcake. Even the name is a decadent mouthful. Say it out loud and contemplate the magnitude of this veritable Goliath of pastry goodness. Cupcake. Whiskey. Bacon. I dare you to find a more ultimate trifecta of olafactory and flavor pleasure. Well met, Cupcake Royale. You have managed to use both of our website’s featured ingredients and put it on cake! And big ups to The Vegetarian for giving me the heads-up on this before it came and went.

So let’s get into it. Cupcake Royale is one of Seattle’s many gourmet cupcakeries. Every month they do an extra-fancy limited edition offering on top of their normal selection. I’m sure you’ve figured out by now what March’s offering is. When I picked up my cupcakes, I was stoked to hear how excited the staff was that they were making them. “I love that we’re selling these because it means every morning we get to cook bacon and the whole place smells like it”. With an attitude like that, you know that a lot of love goes into each one. Bonus!

Unboxing – Cupcake Royale cupcakes are always large and in charge. Opening the box unleashes a wave of delicious smells. You can immediately smell the maple and the bacon and a hint of vanilla. I nearly drowned in my own saliva, like the proverbial turkey looking up, open-mouthed in a rainstorm. Frosting seems plentiful but not overwhelming. The crown on the cupcake is huge, like some kind of Alice In Wonderland mushroom cap, so there’s lots of surface area for said frosting. The bacon appears crispy and it looks like it was well trimmed away before it was crumbled. All my bits are very lean. I should have asked if they were sourcing their bacon from somewhere special or if it’s just supermarket bulk. Hindsight, right?

Tasting – Everything that was expected and more. The flavors are very harmonious and come in waves. The first is the maple frosting on your tongue. It’s not too sweet or heavy and the flavor is balanced with just the faintest hint of whiskey lurking beneath. The sprinkles of bacon have a nice crunch and usher in the second wave of flavors as you bite into them, complimenting the sweetness of the frosting and bringing your mouthful to a happy savory ending. The cake itself had a nice light consistency. It had good flavor but not so much as to compete with the rest of toppings. The only critical comment I have is that the cake was just the tiniest bit dry. That could have been just an anomaly in this batch. I don’t recall ever having noted dryness in a Cupcake Royale cupcake in the past.

Conclusion – Irish, bacon-loving diabetics beware! There’s a new menace in town! Notify me if you find yourself facing one of these cupcakes and I’ll throw myself on the front lines to keep you safe until the end of March. For the rest of you who are fortunate enough to live in the Seattle area, get yourselves to your local Cupcake Royale before you miss the boat.