23 Champagne Cupcakes

Despite the fact that, generally, baking cupcakes is fun and makes me happy, these ones kind of bummed me out. I made them for one of the coolest girls I've ever had a chance to work with. We've had fun adventures (one epic Sunday one comes to mind), crazy times at work together (Valentine's Day night), and some great quality time together (like the time she met my bunnies and turned out to be allergic... oops). Anyway... She's super awesome and I wanted to bake going away cupcakes for her and nothing says "good luck with all your future pursuits" like champagne. Since alcohol cupcakes is "my thing" to all my coworkers, I figured I'd give these a whirl.

A few great things about these particular cupcakes: 1. They have alcohol in them. 2. It's not just any alcohol, but it's bubbly champagne, so you can expect these to be fluffy. 3. They have sour cream in them! I love cupcake recipes with sour cream in them, because they come out moist and perfect. 4. I like to write numbered lists. It's simple enough to make these following the directions. It warns that the batter will be a little thick; I didn't think it was though. Also, it's recommended to use "a level 1/4 cup" to fill the cupcake papers. I did two and I was annoyed so I just used the trusty half full ice cream scoop. They only baked for 17 minutes and came out just right.

Thickened Pastry Filling

I expected the custard filling to be the most difficult part of this recipe, but it wasn't as hard as i was anticipating. After you pour the hot egg mixture back in the saucepan, stir it until it gets thickens up. It only takes about a minute. I put the custard back into the mixing bowl, instead of beating in the butter and vanilla in the pan. That would not have turned out well. I envisioned molten hot custard all over the kitchen and me in the hospital.

If you don't happen to have a cupcake corer, cutting a chunk out of your cupcakes with a knife would work just fine. Even though the recipe doesn't say to, I chilled the custard before filling my cupcakes with it. Going back to another cupcake baker's arsenal, I just used a zippy back with the corner snipped off to put the custard in the cupcakes.

Reduced Champagne. This was a little bit more than 2 Tbsp.

To reduce the champagne, it took a little bit of time. How long? Long enough to clean up the kitchen a little bit and load the dish washer. I put 2 tablespoons of water in a bowl to get an idea of what it would look like. Then, all you have to do is whip together all the ingredients. I added a little extra champagne so you could taste it more. Overall, even though there is champagne in ever element of these cupcakes, it's the custard that you taste it the most in. The different parts of them makes for a triple threat, at least as far as cupcakes go.

Cupcake Ingredients:
1/2 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c champagne

Cupcake How to:
1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until lightly fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix.
3. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together champagne and sour cream. The mixture will fizz and bubble a little.
5. Add flour and champagne mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Batter will be thick.
6. Fill cupcake papers with 1/4 c level measures of batter.
7. Bake for 17-22 minutes.

Champagne Pastry Creme Filling Ingredients:
1/2 c heavy cream, divided
1/2 c champagne
2 Tbsp cornstarch
5 Tbsp sugar
1 egg
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Filling How To:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk cornstarch into 1/4 c heavy cream.
2. Combine the remaining heavy cream, sugar and champagne in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
3. Beat the whole egg and yolks into the cornstarch/heavy cream mixture.
4. Pour 1/3 of the boiling champagne mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so the eggs do not cook.
5. Return the remaining champagne/heavy cream mixture to a boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens.
6. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
7. Cut a divot into the top of each cupcake and fill with pastry cream. Trim the cut-out pieces flat to make a "lid" and place on top of the filled divot.

Champagne Frosting Ingredients:
1 c plus 1 Tbsp champagne
2 sticks of butter
2 1/2 c powdered sugar

Frosting How to:
1. Place 1 c champagne in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium-high heat until reduced to 2 Tbsp. Transfer to a small bowl and allow to cool.
2. In a bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk, cream butter and powdered sugar.
3. Once, the frosting is thick and fluffy, pour in reduced 2 Tbsp champagne plus the 1 Tbsp from the bottle and mix well.
4. Frost the cream filled cupcakes and decorate with dragees.