Champagne Cupcakes

I was having a few drinks with my coworkers the other day and of course this led me to talk about boozy cupcakes. Because who doesn't love a boozy cupcake, and why wouldn't I want to talk about it? Since I haven't seen my coworkers in so long, they didn't know that I have a food blog or that I have a slight obsessions with making alcohol-laced cupcakes. This then led to the inevitable question of "When are we getting cupcakes?". I tried to think of which cupcake recipe I wanted to tackle next. I had a few recipes that I was planning on making soon, but within a matter of hours, two things happened:

1. My roommate sent me a recipe for Champagne Cupcakes, and
2. Stef from Cupcake Project posted these Bellini Cupcakes.

The signs were overwhelming! I knew I had to whip up a batch of champagne cupcakes.

Champagne Cupcakes
slightly adapted recipe from Cupcake Project for Paula Deen
makes ~24 cupcakes

Print Recipe

• 6 large egg whites, room temperature
• 2 cups champagne, room temperature
• 3 cups minus 6 tablespoons* all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2) In a bowl, combine the egg whites and champagne. Set it aside.

3) In another larger bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. You can also do this by hand if you're ambitious.

4) Add the butter to the dry ingredients and mix until the batter resembles moist crumbs.


5) Pour the egg whites/champagne mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until fully combined.

6) Pour batter into cupcake liners** until about 3/4 full.

7) Bake for 25-28 minutes or until cupcakes spring back when touched lightly.


* I converted measurements for cake flour to all-purpose flour. The ratio isn't 1:1. The end result requires the use of 3 cups of all-purpose flour minus 6 tablespoons. I couldn't figure out how to convert this new measurement into cups, so there you go.

** I used 12 paper liners and 12 foil liners when making these cupcakes, since I couldn't decide which liner I liked better. This worked out really well in the end because I unfortunately realized that the cupcake was sticking to the paper liners. I'm not sure why this happened, but I would definitely recommend using foil liners. The cupcakes come out of those liners very easily.

And of course...champagne frosting...

Champagne Buttercream Frosting
from Gimme Some Oven

• 4 3/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 1/2 tablespoons champagne, room temperature

1) Whip the butter for several minutes, using a mixer. The butter should be almost white.

2) Add the sugar until incorporated with the butter.

3) Add the vanilla and champagne. Beat together for a few minutes until the desired consistency is achieved. If the frosting is too stiff, add more champagne. If the frosting is too thin, add more sugar.

These cupcakes were pretty easy to make. I didn't have to fight with the batter, since it was pretty runny, but at the same time the cupcakes turned out to be light and fluffy. So did the frosting. Personally, I couldn't really taste the champagne. I just thought it tasted like a really good vanilla cupcake. However, my roommate Kimmy was able to discern the champagne flavor in the cupcake. I guess her taste buds are a little more sensitive than mine. My coworkers were also divided with the final product. They liked the flavor but some said they could taste the champagne while others couldn't. I'm not concerned. I still think they are pretty good cupcakes and it's likely that I'll make these again since they're so simple. I'll probably make some sort of variation though, such as strawberries with champagne cupcakes, mimosa cupcakes, or bellini cupcakes (a la Cupcake Project).

Note: I kept this cupcake classy with some cheap Andre champagne. Because I could.