Please don’t be scared. Or don’t be that person who says “eew, bacon in dessert”. Just stay with me for a few seconds. I PROMISE you the bacon in the crumble is just enough to make it interesting.. it’s not like “OMG BACON”…it’s like, “Oh how nice, is that bacon?” This cake is seriously amazing. The dark chocolate cake is like a soft sponge cake, the frosting is creamy-dreamy and the bacon-pecan crumble is ridiculous. Oh and I also threw on a thick layer of caramel goodness on the top. If I still can’t get you on board, go ahead and make the cake without the bacon. No, it won’t be half as fun, but it’ll still be major. I found this basis for this recipe in the cookbook Sweet and Vicious. I adore this book. I’ve made a few things using her ideas as inspiration like this Blueberry Cobbler Bread that was to-die! And this cake has been bookmarked since I got it. But you know, a cake with a ton of steps takes a special day, or a special event. This is the cake you make when you want to feel like a boss. It’s a pretty hardcore cake, but we ain’t scared. The cake itself is the recipe from the book…only I adapted the method a bit. It’s a pretty straightforward cake and I LOVE the addition of chocolate milk! I also used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder to get a dark chocolate cake, but certainly if you can’t find it or don’t prefer Dark Chocolate, just use regular cocoa powder! This cake will make three, 8″ layers… While the cake was baking I went ahead and made the crumble topping. I toasted some pecans… And pulsed them in my blender along with 5 slices of extra crispy bacon and a pinch of salt. You want it to be a coarse crumb. Libbie Summers calls this stuff “Chunky Pig Fairy Dust”, which might be the most glorious description of all times. Also, you can go ahead and make your frosting too…I used my own recipe for chocolate frosting, because I don’t think it can be beat! You can find the original recipe HERE. I typically use dark cocoa powder for the frosting too, but for this cake I thought there was enough intensity already and wanted to lighten the frosting up with regular cocoa powder. Plus, I liked the look of the lighter color frosting against the darker cake. Sometimes it’s a fashion choice 🙂 When the cake has cooled just frost it. No need to get fancy or worry about perfection…you can see that I didn’t. Also, this might not be your thing, but pipe a little extra around the top of the cake. While it looks profesh, it actually serves a purpose. And again, my piping skills are super lacking, so don’t worry. The extra frosting there works as a pool to hold a delicious layer of simple caramel. WHAT? The original recipe didn’t call for this, but you know..go big or go home, right? The caramel will only take you a few minutes to make, so don’t be afraid. And it isn’t a caramel sauce that you will drizzle. When this stuff cools it will make a thick caramel/frosting-ish layer. Then top your caramel with the Piggy Fairy Dust… And like whoa! You guys… I’m not kidding you when I say you should make this. This one’s a total rock star cake!
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