With champagne in the cake, buttercream, and strawberry jam filling in these strawberry champagne cupcakes, this homemade cupcake recipe checks all the boxes for a romantic cupcake. Strawberry champagne cupcakes are fit for any celebration, like Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, anniversaries, and birthdays.
When made with the strawberry champagne jam, these cupcakes use an entire 750 ml bottle of champagne! The carbonation in the champagne helps give the cupcakes an extra airy texture that pairs beautifully with the rich buttercream and sweet jam filling.
Ingredients for Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes
You won’t find complicated or hard-to-find ingredients for these cupcakes here. The cupcakes and buttercream are made with ingredients that you’ll likely already have in your pantry and fridge, with the possible exception of strawberries and champagne.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make these strawberry champagne cupcakes at home:
- Granulated sugar. In addition to giving the champagne cake a sweet taste, sugar also keeps the cake moist and prevents it from being dry.
- Unsalted butter. Use unsalted butter to keep your cake moist and not overly salty, as each butter brand uses a different amount of salt in each stick.
- All-purpose flour. This recipe works well with all-purpose flour, not cake flour, to give the cake its structure.
- Baking powder. Baking powder gives the champagne cake its rise.
- Salt. Just a pinch helps to enhance the flavor.
- Eggs. Eggs contain emulsifiers and protein that help hold the cake together.
- Vanilla extract. An extra oomph and bit of flavor to balance out the champagne.
- Champagne, prosecco, or sparkling wine. Use the variety of champagne or sparkling wine you like best here!
- Strawberry champagne jam. Either homemade or store-bought strawberry champagne jam is best, but plain strawberry jam works in a pinch as well.
- Powdered sugar. Without powdered sugar, American buttercream would have no structure.
- Strawberries. A necessity for strawberry champagne cupcakes!
- Gold sprinkles. While entirely optional, gold sprinkles really sell the “champagne” portion of these cupcakes.
Quick Tips for Prepping Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes
This recipe makes about 12 cupcakes (maybe 14 if you prefer smaller cupcakes). I always use large paper liners. Large liners seem to fit in muffin pans better than standard ones, and they prevent your cake from spilling over the edge. I have four of these cupcake pans from Nordic Ware and love them!
Creaming your butter and sugar together will result in a light and fluffy cupcake. You’ll want to beat your egg and egg white into the creamed butter and sugar thoroughly. There are emulsifiers in egg yolks that help this process along, and having your eggs at room temperature help make the mixture homogenous.
The carbonation in champagne helps make the champagne cake extra fluffy. It’s important to mix only until ingredients are combined to keep as many champagne bubbles in tact as possible.
By alternating the wet and dry ingredients, you reduce the potential to overmix the cake batter. Overmixing the cake batter will result in a dense and gummy cake, which no one wants. Gluten takes a while to develop, however, so it’s pretty difficult to get a truly inedible cake if you follow the recipe. I write them as detailed as possible so that you know exactly what you’re looking for in each step!
Quick Tips for Prepping Champagne Buttercream
Reducing the champagne for the buttercream is imperative for this recipe’s success. Fortunately, it’s incredibly easy.
Why Do You Have to Reduce the Champagne for the Buttercream?
Adding the full cup of champagne straight from the bottle would water the buttercream down incredibly, so we have to reduce the water content. Additionally, champagne is a weak flavor compared to all the sugar in the buttercream. For the full flavor to come through, the champagne has to be reduced.
How to Reduce Champagne
In a small saucepan over medium low heat, bring the champagne to a simmer. Let the champagne simmer for about 20 minutes, until the champagne has reduced to ¼ cup (60 ml).
And although my favorite kitchen task is stirring, stirring is not needed here.
The more champagne you reduce, the stronger the champagne flavor will be. I reduce one cup (240 ml) down to ¼ cup (60 ml), but you could use up to 2 cups (480 ml) for a more intense champagne flavor. If it’s between letting a leftover cup of champagne sit in your fridge or using it up, I’d recommend using the extra cup here.
Adding the Champagne Reduction to the Buttercream
Once you have reduced the champagne, allow it to cool entirely before adding it to the buttercream. If the reduction is hot, it will melt the butter and turn the champagne buttercream into champagne butter soup.
Once you’ve mixed your buttercream together, transfer it to a piping bag for easy decorating.
Assembling Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes
To fill these cupcakes with strawberry champagne jam, you’ll need to remove the center piece of cake in each cupcake. You can use a paring knife or a cupcake corer to do this. I prefer the paring knife myself. It allows me to get a more shallow cut and fill the cake with more jam, but the cupcake corer is certainly faster.
To remove the center of your cupcake with a paring knife, cut out a cone in the center of each cupcake. Use a 45° angle to keep the tip of the knife angled toward the center of the cupcake at all times.
Pop the piece of cake out and place a heaping teaspoon of strawberry champagne jam inside. Add the cake piece back on top of the filling, pressing down lightly to make sure it stays in place.
Then, brush the remaining champagne reduction onto the tops of the cupcakes.
Decorating Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes
Then, it’s time to frost and decorate! I used an open star tip to pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes. Then, I like to decorate with half of a strawberry and gold sprinkles on top, but you can use whatever you like: Gold sprinkles, gold leaf, even plain looks great!
Note: You can also use diced strawberries on top, just dab them with a towel first to absorb some of the juice. Otherwise, the red juice can start to run down the buttercream onto the cupcake, and it doesn’t look quite as neat.
Other Recipes You May Enjoy
If you enjoyed this recipe, try my cherry almond cupcakes. Two kinds of cherries fill an almond-flavored cake for an absolutely stunning duo.
Looking for more of a breakfast-y little cake? My caramel chai muffins are made with a beautifully chai-spiced cake and topped with salted caramel.
If boozy desserts are your thing, I also have a recipe for a reinvented tiramisu layer cake. Moist coffee sponge cakes are layered with a real tiramisu filling and frosted with a delicious Kahlua and mascarpone frosting.
Dish Cleanup: Gonna Take Awhile
I rate my recipe clean-ups on a scale of 1 to 5. 1 is only a handful of dishes, and 5 is everything including the kitchen sink.
These strawberry champagne cupcakes have a cleanup rating of a 4. Most of these dishes are pretty standard for cupcake recipes. Since the cupcakes are filled, there are a handful more dishes, but nothing too extensive. Definitely worth it for the perfect balance of strawberry and champagne!
Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes
With champagne in the cake, buttercream, and strawberry jam filling, these strawberry champagne cupcakes check all the boxes for a romantic cupcake fit for any celebration.
Ingredients
For the Champagne Cupcakes
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150g)
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (85g)
- 1⅓ cups all-purpose flour (175g)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (7g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 large egg white, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml)
- ⅔ cup champagne, prosecco, or sparkling wine (160 ml)
For the Strawberry Champagne Filling
For the Champagne Buttercream
- 1 cup champagne, prosecco, or sparkling wine (240 ml)
- 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (113g)
- 1¾ cups powdered sugar (225g)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (3 ml)
- 6 strawberries, diced (optional)
- Gold sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
For the Champagne Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 2 to 3 minutes).
- In a separate medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- To the butter mixture, add the egg, egg white, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium for about a minute to fully incorporate until the batter is smooth.
- With the beater on medium speed, add about a third of the flour mixture. Then, stream in half of the champagne. Add another third of the flour mixture, then the last half of the champagne. Add in the final third of the flour mixture.
- When the dry ingredients are just combined, turn off the mixer. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl with a spatula, then beat on medium for a couple seconds to ensure everything is evenly incorporated.
- Scoop the batter into the paper liners until they are ¾ of the way full.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes at 350°F/175°C until slightly domed and springy when touched. Leave the cakes in the muffin pan to cool for at least 30 minutes until the cakes are cooled entirely.
For the Champagne Frosting
- While the cupcakes are in the oven, reduce the champagne.
- In a small saucepan over medium low heat, bring the champagne to a simmer. Let the champagne simmer for about 20 minutes, until the champagne has reduced to ¼ cup (60 ml). Stirring is not needed.
- Pour the champagne reduction into a measuring cup and allow it to cool entirely (about 5 minutes in the fridge or 15 minutes at room temperature).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl, beat the butter and powdered sugar together on medium speed.
- Add in the vanilla extract and only two Tablespoons of the cooled champagne reduction, saving the remaining reduction for later. Beat together until smooth.
- If piping the buttercream, transfer it to a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 2D (Ateco 852) tip.
Assembling
- Slice six strawberries in half length-wise with a paring knife.
- With the same paring knife, cut out a cone in the center of each cupcake, angling your knife to the center of the cupcake at all times. Alternatively, you can also use a cupcake corer if you have one.
- Pop the piece of cake out and place a heaping teaspoon of strawberry champagne jam inside. Add the cake piece back on top of the filling, pressing down lightly to make sure it stays in place. Brush the remaining champagne reduction onto the tops of the cupcakes.
- Pipe the champagne buttercream onto the cupcakes in a swirl, then add some gold sprinkles and one half of a strawberry, or frost and decorate as desired.
Notes
This recipe can also be made with regular strawberry jam. You can stir in a splash of champagne to the container of jam for a boozy addition.
Store the cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge. These strawberry champagne cupcakes are best when eaten within three days.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1 cupcakeAmount Per Serving: Calories: 339Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 67mgSodium: 187mgCarbohydrates: 43gFiber: 1gSugar: 30gProtein: 3g
The nutrition facts are estimated and may vary based on specific ingredients used.
Thanks for trying out these strawberry champagne cupcakes! I’d love to see how they turn out: Take a photo and tag me on Instagram @floralapronblog to share with me, or use #floralapronbakes.
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Why no PINTEREST so I could save this information?
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