Champagne Cupcakes

 

 

While brainstorming and searching the internet for this week’s cupcake idea I stumbled across this Champagne Cupcake at Gimme Some Oven. Based on what I’ve seen, this girl can cook!  Plus, her most recent post was a whoopie pie which one of my taste testers recently recommended I try.  Hold on Ann – I’ve found a recipe!

Anyway, since a champagne cupcake was on my to-do list I snagged her recipe to recreate here.  I have a club meeting this afternoon.  Since we are in the final stages of getting to launch a fabulous and fun new project I thought a champagne cupcake would be a fitting dessert to take.  Of course I also need to take the unused champagne!  We do need something to wash down these awesome cupcakes, don’t we?

Of course, half the fun of making cupcakes is figuring out how to decorate them.  After dinner and a visit to the local Harley shop, Mike and I stopped at the local Michael’s Craft Store to see what they had to offer.  Wow!  They had all kinds of cool things.  As we were browsing, one of the workers (over hearing our conversation) suggested I take their decorating class.  Bonus for it being half off right now!  My first class is the first week of September.  I’ll be sharing my journey with you.

For today’s cupcake I decided to bake them in  Wilton Baking Cups – Double Ruffle – Pink liners.  To frost them I’ve stepped away from my usual zip top sandwich bag and actually used a decorating bag with a Wilton Decorating Tip: #2D Drop Flower to pipe the frosting on.  The final decorations were Wilton Pearlized Sprinkles, Pink  and Wilton White Cake Sparkles.

I couldn’t decide which one of the pictures was my favorite so here’s another view.

 

Here’s the recipe:

 Champagne Cupcake

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup sweet champagne
• 6 egg whites

Sweet Champagne Buttercream Frosting 

• 3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons champagne, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (for my non-USA friends that would be 176 degrees C).  Prepare a cupcake pan with liners.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.  Slowly blend in champagne.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into batter to lighten it, then fold in remaining egg whites.  Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.  Note:  The batter is pretty thick.  GENTLY add the egg whites so you don’t mix the air out of them.

Bake at 350 degrees F  for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.  These cupcakes don’t “brown” like many do.  Cupcake will be firm to the touch when done.

Frosting:

With an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter. Mix on low until well blended, and then on medium for another two minutes.  Add vanilla and champagne, beating on medium for another minute.

For my champagne I chose an inexpensive Pink Moscato from Barefoot Bubbly.  It cost me about $8 for the bottle and was absolutely delicious!  You will want to make sure that whatever champagne you choose is sweet.  Depending upon how much frosting you use you may want to double the frosting recipe.  I did double it and had a little bit left over.

Overall  initial feedback from my taste testers is 4 out of 5 stars.  The frosting is unbelievable!  Best buttercream frosting I think I’ve ever tasted.  The cupcake is a little denser than I expected but has a nice flavor to it.

Enjoy!

You might also like:

 Triple Chocolate Cupcake

Applesauce Cupcake

Orange Marmalade Cupcake