cupcake cheers

Besides having bottles on bottles of champagne at the mountain house where I spent new year's weekend with friends, we had these babies. I saw these on Sprinkle Bakes about two days before we left for the trip and I knew I had to make them. I created a little hype on Twitter with a tweet that went something like, "champagne filled with champagne and topped with more champagne". And that's exactly what these are.



They were definitely a hit. The champagne gives the icing such an interesting flavor. It's almost like a cream cheese icing, with that subtle bitterness. I had some leftover pastry cream filling when I was done but I actually had to double the icing. I may have piped a little too much on them :).



These are the perfect dessert for a special occasion. I ended up using almost a full bottle of champagne!

Champagne Cupcakes
recipe from Sprinkle Bakes

champagne cake
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup champagne or prosecco

Preheat oven to 350F. Using a paddle attachment in a standing mixer, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add one egg at a time, combining well after each one. Mix in vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In another bowl, combine sour cream and champagne. Add flour and champagne mixture to the mixing bowl alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Fill cupcake papers with a 1/4 cup of batter each. (Yields around 17 cupcakes.) Bake for 17-22 minutes and set aside to cool.


champagne pastry cream filling
1/2 cup heavy cream, divided
1/2 cup champagne or prosecco
2 tbsp cornstarch
5 tbsp granulated sugar
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Pour 1/4 cup heavy cream into a medium bowl and whisk in corn starch. In a saucepan, combine the rest of the cream, sugar, and champagne. Bring it to a boil and remove from heat.
In the bowl with the heavy cream and cornstarch, beat in the whole egg and egg yolks. Pour 1/3 of the boiling mixture into the egg mixture and whisk constantly so that your eggs don't scramble. Return the remaining champagne/cream/sugar mixture to a boil and pour in egg mixture in a small stream. Whisk constantly until mixture thickens, and remove from heat. Beat in butter and vanilla.
Take cooled cupcakes and cut a divot out of the center. Fill with the cream and then cut down the part you removed so that it's a flat lid. Replace lid on top of filled cream.


champagne icing
1 cup plus 1 tbsp champagne or prosecco
2 sticks of butter, softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

In a small saucepan, simmer 1 cup of champagne over medium-high heat until it's reduced to 2 tbsp. Pour it into a small bowl and allow to cool.
In a standing mixer with a whisk attachment, cream butter and confectioners' sugar. Once the mixture is thick and fluffy, pour in reduced champagne plus 1 tbsp strait from the bottle. Mix well.
Ice cupcakes and decorate with something festive!

Check the photos over at Sprinkle Bakes too. She took way more and decorated them with pretty pearls. I had these stars left over from a pie I made for Christmas.

I thought I would take so many more pictures over the holidays but it totally slipped my mind! I either felt too busy or too lazy to do it. *Sigh* maybe next year. :)