Ring In The New Year With Champagne Cupcakes

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Happy New Year!!!

art by Bella Pilar

All right, all right, I know this post is a little late, but I figured that this recipe was still totally worth posting.

My friends hosted a fancy potluck for New Years this year. We all dressed to the nines and brought something to share with everyone else. I was asked to make a dessert and I thought that it was the perfect opportunity to try making champagne cupcakes.

Yup, more cupcakes with booze in them. Gotta love it!

I looked through a lot of recipes before I finally found this recipe on Gimme Some Oven. It had everything that I was looking for in the recipe; booze, buttercream and more booze.

Champagne Cupcakes

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 champagne
6 egg whites 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 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, and then blend into creamed mixture alternately with champagne. 

(I used this fun-sized champagne that came in a 3-pack. It made it super easy to take the other 2 bottles to the party with me later.)

In another large clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
(I have this fancy egg separator that I never get to use, so that was kinda excited to be able to separate so many eggs) 

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 at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean

(I actually suggest baking these for 15 minutes instead of 20)

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

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.

I couldn't find my good icing tip, so I compromised by widening the one I had with a pair of pliers. It actually worked out pretty well.

I then sprinkled some pearl dust on it to give it some shimmer.

This one was my favourite. It kind of came out oddly, but I like it all the more because of it.

So, I mentioned that this was a fancy dress party, well, I spent way too much time on my hair then I usually do. 

No seriously, I spent like 3 hours doing my hair.

That is unheard of for me. I'm the queen of 10 minute hairdos.

My hair was super full and bouncy... and then I went out in the wind...

It survived ok, but wasn't quite as nice as it originally had been.

Here are a few of the pictures that they took of me.

When I get my computer working properly, I'll post the better pictures of my hair.

Go me.

Anyway, the party was a blast filled with lots of booze.

The cupcakes went over very well and were gone well before midnight.

What did you make for New Years?