Improving on the Classic Chocolate Caramel Bacon Cake

Sunday was my daughter's dance recital and her birthday is mid-June so we take advantage of having family here from out of town to have her birthday celebration. She again requested a Chocolate Cake w/ Caramel Frosting and Candied Bacon. We made a little adjustment and decided Maple Frosting sounded good, but how about Maple/Caramel Fluff instead? Yes, that was what we were going for, and a success it was!

The cake is the Favorite Fudge Birthday Cake from King Arthur Flour. I used white wheat flour and 1/2 cup oil with the 2 extra yolks from the frosting. The cake wasn't smelling very chocolaty, so I put in a few ounces of chopped dark, Fair Trade Ethiopian chocolate. 

The frosting is based on King Arthur Flour's 7 Minute Frosting. I made a caramel sauce with a cup of white sugar (organic, unrefined) and a cup of maple sugar - heat until sugar melts, stirring constantly, then when it's reddish brown, add 2 cups of water - splatter, splatter, then simmer until 240 degrees - soft-ball stage. Then use the caramel in place of the simple sugar in the frosting recipe. Some of the caramel I kept out and cooked a few more minutes until it would harden more, and tossed hot with cooked, chopped bacon. I find this a good method to keep the bacon crispy. The bummer was what's hiding under all that frosting - the cake stuck very badly to the bundt pan, mostly because of the chocolate chunks, I believe. The pan really wasn't made for a cake like this, but maybe more for a coffee or pound cake - something with more fat. It really didn't matter because it was very good.