Pink Champagne Cupcakes with Super Fluffy Frosting

Pink and gold is a favorite color combination of mine. In fact, blush pink has always been my favorite color and was my wedding color. I just love how feminine and girly it is because I am a true girly girl. When gold is added it just elevates the pink to absolutely elegant status. Pink and gold colors also look stunning in food as you can see in today’s Pink Champagne cupcakes with super fluffy frosting.

Pink and gold makes these cupcakes beautiful, and adding pink champagne makes them sumptuous. It looks and tastes like you bought them at an expensive bakery. This is the perfect recipe to pull out for a holiday party. Don’t feel limited by pink and gold thinking you can only use it for a bridal shower or a group of friends. These are festive and absolutely perfect for the holiday season. Bring them out at a holiday cocktail party. You will impress your friends and yourself.

These pink champagne cupcakes require little more than a box cake mix and a bottle of pink champagne. I recommend Barefoot’s Pink Champagne because it is a fruitier and sweeter champagne. Basically, you swap out the water for champagne in the cake mix- easy. Champagne is also used in the whipped frosting which is really yummy! The pink champagne adds only a light champagne taste which is perfect. I also highly recommend enjoying a glass of the pink champagne while you are making the cupcakes 🙂

The frosting is the highlight of this recipe. A fellow dinner party guest gave me her method for making a basic frosting which I now use in any frosting I create. Do you remember the song “Whip it Good”? Well, think of that song when you make the frosting because the trick to the super fluffy frosting is whipping the butter- whip it real good 🙂 Don’t skimp on whipping here- seriously. I turn on my Kitchenaid and let that butter whip for a good 15-20 minutes. If you need something to do, then go clean your bathroom or read a novel while you wait. You want the butter seriously light and fluffy.

Furthermore, turning on your hand mixer for 5 minutes won’t cut it here. Not only do I use hand, stand, and stick mixers in the kitchen, but I use them in my workshop as well for creating products such as whipped body butters, and all mixers are not created equal. A stand mixer adds A LOT more volume to your product than a hand mixer. And while we’re at it, a stick mixers/blender is just a poor choice for this and will result in flat frosting. Use the stand mixer here for the ultimate fluffy frosting- it doesn’t have to be a Kitchenaid.

Ratio of butter to powdered sugar is another key here. Basically, 1 cup of butter for each pound of powdered sugar. Yes, it’s a lot of butter, but it’s what makes the frosting super fluffy and it tastes so yummy! This is not the recipe to skimp on the butter, so use the full amount. I have not tried this with margarine and don’t plan to, so I can’t promise the same results if you substitute ingredients or decrease amounts.

A last note about the pink champagne, the champagne flavor is light in the cupcakes, and no, you will not be in a drunken stupor by eating one. Barefoot makes a delicious light and fruity pink champagne, so get something in that category for best results. Plus the bottle is pretty. Don’t forget to check out the peach champagne version below as well!

Pink Champagne Cupcakes with Super Fluffy Frosting

For cupcakes:

1 box of white cake mix plus whatever is needed to make it according to box

Pink champagne

1-2 drops of red or pink food coloring

Cupcakes liners

Make up one box of white cake mix as directed on box except substitute the water in the cake mix recipe with half pink champagne/half water. Add 1 drop of pink or red food coloring for a blush color. Don’t overdo it on the food coloring if you want blush pink. One to two drops should be plenty. Next, using cupcake pans bake as directed on box. Approx. yield is 24 cupcakes.

For super fluffy frosting:

2 cups of butter at room temperature (don’t soften or melt in microwave)

2 lbs of powdered sugar

1 drop of pink or red food coloring

Enough pink champagne to make frosting consistency (you can also add a mix of champagne and cream if you want to keep the champagne taste light)

Edible gold sprinkles

Edible gold spray (optional)

First, start by whipping the butter. Put butter in a stand mixer and turn on high and let whip for 15 -20 min, occasionally scraping sides to make sure all butter is incorporated. This part is important for super fluffy frosting. After butter is whipped and fluffy start adding the powdered sugar, continuing to whip. After powdered sugar add pink champagne (or champagne/cream mix) and then 1 drop of red or pink food coloring. Whip a few minutes more to mix everything well and then use to frost cupcakes. I find piping it on with a large frosting tip helps the fluffy factor as opposed to slathering it on with a knife. Spray cupcakes lightly on top with edible gold spray (optional) and then sprinkle gold sprinkles on top.

Note: if you don’t have a frosting tip for this then put your frosting into a piping bag and snip about an 1 1/2 off the bottom. This trick works great for the featured cupcakes as well!

Note: Gold spray and sprinkles are widely available at craft stores.

Peach Champagne Cupcakes

Follow the above instructions only use peach champagne instead of pink champagne. Also, for a slightly peachy color add one drop each of red and yellow food coloring to both cake batter and frosting. If you can’t find peach champagne then any sparkling peach wine should work. Peach champagne cupcakes pictured below.

Photo featured here in Brides online publication!

Enjoy!