Pink Champagne Cupcakes w/ Champagne Buttercream Icing

I made these cupcakes (pictured) for Mother's Day this year.   But I want to make a few comments before moving on to the best recipe I found.   There are actually two cake recipes that I like the homemade and the semi-homemade.  I have gotten compliments on both.  The one thing I don’t do semi-homemade is the frosting.

First, choose the right Champagne/Sparkling Wine and make sure it is at room temperature.  After a few trials we have a winner... Petalo Moscato Spumante ($ 13.98 HEB) - It’s a sweet sparkling, bubbly Moscato with a subtle scent of roses.   It will make your kitchen smell wonderful and adds great scent and flavor to the cupcakes.  And yes, the men actually ate AND liked these cupcakes.

Second is the food coloring.  I have found, especially in buttercream frosting that Wilson Gel Food Coloring works best.  It's not liquid so it won’t thin out your frosting and the colors seem to be more vibrant once mixed.  I know in the directions it says “drops” but I use toothpicks to dip in the gel and then spread into the frosting mixture – about 4 times to get the color I like.  It’s all a matter of preference on what you like.

Pink Champagne Cupcakes (Homemade)

Makes 18-20 standard size cupcakes

Ingredients
2-3/4  cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter (use real butter at room temperature - I use Land O'Lakes)
1-1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup champagne/sparkling wine (see above comments)
6 large egg whites
4-5 drops red food coloring (see above comments)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare a cupcake pan with liners.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.  Alternate adding flour mixture and champagne into the creamed mixture.

In another large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently 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.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Pink Champagne Cupcakes (Semi-Homemade)

Makes 18-20 standard size cupcakes

Ingredients

1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist white cake mix (it has to be SuperMoist for the best cake)

1-1/4 cups champagne

1/3  cup vegetable oil

3  large egg whites

4-5 drops red food color

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare a cupcake pan with liners.

In large bowl, mix dry cake mix and champagne with electric mixer just until ingredients are combined. 

In a small bowl add oil and egg whites mix unto cake batter.  Beat with electric mixer on medium speed 2 minutes.   During last minute of mixing ad food coloring.

Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.

Bake for 17-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Champagne Buttercream Frosting*

Ingredients

3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons champagne  (see above comments)
4-5 drops red food coloring (see above comments)

Directions

In your mixer bowl, beat together powdered sugar and butter.  Mix on low until well blended, then on medium for another 2 minutes.   Add vanilla and champagne, beating on medium for another minute.

Transfer frosting into a decorating bag fitted with a large star tip to decorate.

In the picture above I used a Wilton 1M followed by pink sugar pearls

*Note: if decorating cupcakes with a swirl (see above photo), you will need to double this frosting recipe.