Autumn Rae makes a mean bacon cupcake. Not a cupcake that looks like bacon - a cupcake with bacon as a main ingredient. As soon as spring arrives, she’ll debut Autumn Rae’s Sweet Treats and Street Meats which will be about as delicious as it sounds, offering cupcakes and hot dogs from a stand on the University of Michigan campus.

“If I could be Beezy’s on wheels I would be,” says Rae, referring to Ypsilanti’s breakout culinary star. Rae had a side of bacon tattooed on her flank seven years ago “and bacon really took off after that,” she jokes. This woman is really into food.

Rae started her culinary career as a 13 year old at the Dairy Cream in Waterford. She’s worked with food all her life.

“Arbor Brewing Company, the Del Rio, Whole Foods, Plum Market,” Rae lists her credentials while we sit in the front windows of Café Felix sipping coffee and looking out on the snowy sidewalks.

I join Rae and hot dog kingpin Joe Takla as they review the minor details of their business plan. Takla has run hot dog stands on campus since his senior year of college, spreading his empire to department stores, classic car shows, farmer’s markets and Michigan football games. Rae ran one of Takla’s stands last summer, selling hot dogs, chips and pop to students and university employees all spring, working the corner of East and South University before moving to State Street and North University once classes broke for the summer.

“It’s more than just a hot dog stand,” Rae says. “You get to know people, get to have fun outside, and it’s one of the best people watching jobs in the world.”

For the upcoming season, Rae has grander plans. She has been busy in the kitchen perfecting a number of cupcake recipes that have been test marketed to friends. In one of her first market tests last month, she sold out of cupcakes at the Bloody Valentine’s Day Party. Rae and Takla plan to add cupcakes to the regular menu at the hot dog stand, launching Autumn Rae’s Sweet Treats and Street Meats.

“We’ll still offer all our regular street meats, but people can also get little traveling bites of deliciousness,” says Rae.

“I use as many local ingredients as I can,” she says. Rae buys her eggs from the Ypsi Food Co-op and her produce from local farms. She’s developed a list of specialty cupcakes including a red velvet cupcake, peanut butter banana chocolate fudge cupcake and, of course, the maple bacon cupcake. “Once you try one, you’ll be hooked.”

On the table in front of us is a white box with "Enjoy" written in happy script. Rae has been talking up her maple bacon cupcakes for weeks. I peek under the flap and see six fat cupcakes with healthy hunks of bacon nestled on frosting. It smells like a lumberjack’s breakfast.

People walk past our window bundled in scarves and hats. Rae and Takla are anxious to get started, but they’ll have to wait for the weather to cooperate before they unleash Sweet Treats and Street Meats. The logistics are worked out, there’s a Facebook fan page (357 fans as of this column) and a logo is almost ready.

After our interview I returned to my apartment and opened the box completely. Here’s where I should admit a few things:

1) This is the first time I’ve ever written about food.
2) I’m not an exotic eater.
3) I’m not really into cupcakes.

I didn’t know what to expect from a cupcake covered in chopped bacon, so I dove right in and took a big bite, making sure to get frosting, bacon and cake into my mouth at the same time. Salty, sweet and probably the best cake part of any cupcake I’ve ever had. It tasted like the most expensive lumberjack’s breakfast ever. I tasted the bacon separately (a little chewy), then the maple frosting (sweet but full) and finally the cake (I could eat the cake alone). I think this Autumn Rae is onto something.

I brought the box to work the next day and two people were brave enough to try Rae’s sweet treats. The reviews were unanimously positive.

When the snow finally melts, the leaves return and the grass turns green, you’ll have one more thing to look forward to this spring. Autumn Rae’s Sweet Treats and Street Meats.

Richard Retyi writes a bi-weekly(ish) column called Lie to Your Cats About Santa. He eats a lot but doesn't write about food, though he's still very bitter that Buffalo Wild Wings stopped their 50 cent drummy special. Email him at richretyi@gmail.com if you have any good ideas he can write about or if you want to join his curling team.