Celebration Champagne Cupcakes

I still love the alliteration though my c’s don’t all sound quite the same in that title but who cares?  These cupcakes are seriously too scrumptious to get all hung up on the details.  I had some leftover champagne from my graduation.  Champagne really isn’t any good to drink a day later so I just held on to it waiting for some inspiration to strike… or vinegar.  Anyway I kept thinking about this thing I’d heard of from a friend called Champagne frosting.  Well I decided to experiment with that.

The butter cake recipe isn’t mine but the frosting and peach filling for these cupcakes are.  Sadly I never wrote down what I did when I made the peach preserves.  I had a big stack of peaches from my CSA that were overripe and one night when I couldn’t sleep I threw them in a pan with sugar and cooked them down.  I think I’d added a spoonful of champagne in with it.  I’m not sure what else I added.  I don’t think there was anything else…in any case some store bought peach jam would work well in place.

Peach Champagne Cupcakes

Butter Cake replicated from “The Cake Bible” Rose Levy Berenbaum

4 egg yolks
160 grams sour cream
1 tsp Vanilla extract
200 grams cake flour
200 grams sugar
1/2 tsp each of baking powder/baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbsp butter
dash of nutmeg (it makes everything better.  Seriously add it)
1 tsp fiori di sicilia (another addition of mine for this)

Champagne frosting

2 cups champagne
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup meringue powder
1 tbsp water
3 sticks butter
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar (opt.)

Make the cake:

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.  In a medium bowl combine the yolks, some of the sour cream and the vanilla.  Mix the butter and sour cream with the dry goods for 2 minutes.  Then gradually add in the egg mixture and pour into prepared pans.  Bake at 350F for 35 to 45 minutes.  I overbaked mine a little actually.  The cakes will be very flat topped so don’t overfill the cupcake tins.  About 2/3 full will suffice.  Remove the cakes and let them cool before filling with some peach jam.

Make the frosting:

In a medium saucepan reduce the champagne with the1/2 cup of sugar.  It will happen over time that the champagne reduces down to a sugar syrup which will work perfectly at flavoring the frosting.  Now since different champagnes may have a different level of sugar I would definitely suggest having some powdered sugar on hand to sweeten the frosting at the end if you need it which is why I listed it in the ingredients.  I think I only really needed a tablespoon or two of it for my frosting.

Once you have the syrup, beat the meringue powder withe the water until stiff peaks form.  Why meringue powder?  It functions just like egg whites but I like it because there’s no risk of serving someone contaminated raw egg.  If you don’t mind living dangerously you can use the egg whites from the cake recipe and whip them over a pot of boiling water but that’s a lot of work.

Stiff peaks?  Great now beat in the 3 sticks of softened butter and the champagne syrup.  Sweeten with the powdered sugar if needed and voila!  Very grown up champagne frosting.  Not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.

Filed under: Cupcakes Tagged: butter cakes, champagne