Pink Champagne Cupcakes

I know its a little late to make these for New Year's, BUT they are totally worth trying!

 
Although I think I have to apologize to all your diet resolutions, as much as I wish these were zero cal, no carb, lettuce-like cupcakes, they are not. They are delicious and sugary, so sorry! You can look forward to some more diet friendly recipes in the future, but for now enjoy!

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Cupcakes:

3 cups cake flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 and 1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup pink champagne

6 egg whites

4-5 drops red food coloring

additional pink champagne for glazing

 Frosting:

3 and 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup butter, softened

3 tbsp pink champagne

4-5 drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease or line two cupcake pans and set aside. In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In a large bowl beat egg whites till stiff peaks form and set aside. In a second large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Alternate adding flour mixture and champagne to butter mixture till well combined, scraping sides and bottom of bowl as necessary. Add in red food coloring till pink color is attained. Fold in 1/3 of the whipped egg whites and mix thoroughly. Add in remaining egg white mixture till combined. Fill cupcake liners with 1/4 cup of batter and bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and let cool completely on wire rack. Once cupcakes have cooled, gently poke 8-10 holes in cupcake using a toothpick. Using a pastry brush, glaze the cupcakes with extra champagne.

For frosting, beat butter till creamy. With mixer on low, slowly add in sifted confectioners' sugar. Once all sugar is incorporated beat on high for 3-5 minutes or until smooth and fluffy. Add in champagne and mix till incorporated. Fill a pastry bag with frosting and decorate cooled and champagne glazed cupcakes.

Adapted from allrecipes.com

To achieve the rose look, I used a Wilton 1M decorating tip. With pastry bag at a 90 degree angle to cupcake surface, start in center of cupcake and swirl outward.

I chose to glaze the cupcakes with champagne to make sure they contained a vibrant champagne flavor and it worked! I did find that the cupcakes tasted best on the same day that I made them, after two days passed, they lost the champagne flavor a bit. So make 'em fresh!

Lastly, I found these super cute cupcake holders from Wilton and just knew they would be perfect for these champagne cakes ... but the liners started peeling off after a few hours! Not sure if it was the moisture from the champagne or if they always do that. I am curious as to where everyone buys their cupcake liners, I'd really like to get some nice quality ones to try out!

Happy Baking!