How to Make Pink Champagne Cupcakes

So here they are, my first attempt at making Pink Champagne Cupcakes with a Pink Champagne buttercream frosting. 

I love to bake from scratch, but like many of you, I just don't have the time or desire when the need arises. So following in the heels of Sandra Lee, who modifies a lot of semi-prepared foods on her tv show and magazine, I was inspired to do so with these.  I purchased a boxed cake mix along with a packaged buttercream mix and just added my Champagne and yes, I am going to keep calling these Champagne cupcakes through this post even though I used a sparkling wine; it sounds so much better than Bubbly Cupcakes or Sparkling Wine Cupcakes doesn’t it?

For this recipe I used Pillsbury's White Premium Cake Mix and their powdered Purely Simple Buttercream frosting mix. 

What you will need for the Champagne cupcake recipe

- 1 boxed cake mix along with the ingredients they mention needed.  My mix was eggs, oil, and water. Once again, I used a white cake mix vs yellow, but that is preference. 

Follow the directions for mixing your ingredients, but make sure to SUBSTITUTE the water with Champagne.  Ooooh,  I would love to be able to say that whenever the Mr. and I dine out.... "Waiter, please substitute my water with Champagne".

Since I don't drink sweet wines, I had to ask my local wine merchant for a suggestion. I explained to him that I already had a rose' Veuve Cliquot to enjoy with the cupcakes, but I didn’t want to use it in my first Champagne cupcake cooking experience incase I ruined them.  There will be no alcohol abuse in this home! 

Without blinking, he grabbed the Rose' Champagne out of my hand that I had contemplated buying, and told me to follow him. Like a moth to a flame, I followed him back to the isle full of bubbly beverages.  He knew just what I wanted after I mentioned it was for cupcakes. Something sweet, delicious, yet inexpensive.  I was handed a bottle of Rosa Regal, a sparkling red wine made from Brachetto grapes, grown exclusively at the La Rosa Vineyard in the town of Acqui Terme, Italy.  As soon as I opened the wine and smelled the strawberry and raspberry scent escape from the bottle, I had a mini flash-back to prom 1982 and Strawberry Boones Farm Wine. Any out there know what I'm talking about?  Just the scent alone told me it would be perfect for my cupcakes. Good call Mr. wine merchant!  

Following the instructions on the back of the box, I blended together the cake / cupcake mix, eggs, oil, and Champagne in my mixer. 

Once again, I love making things from scratch when I have time, but I saw this package of Pillsbury buttercream frosting near the boxed cake mix and I thought I would give it a whirl. It worked out great and it was simple and delicious.  I chose not to add food coloring to the cupcake mix since there was just enough hint-of-pink from the Rose'.

As I did with the cupcake batter, I mixed Champagne instead of water into the frosting mix.

The rich colored Rose' did give a light pink tone to the frosting, but not as much as I wanted, so I added one drop of red food coloring and created the blush pink I envisioned. 

Here is my New Best Friend!  A sparkly edible dust by Sweet Sugarbelle. For those who don't know me, I love anything that sparkles. I can't wait to look for more colors and create more desserts! 

I found the rose gold sparkle dust, by Sweet Sugarbell, at Michaels Craft store and put it in my shopping cart before even having a plan for it. A few shopping isles later I found these icing flower decorations by Wilton Cakes and the light bulb quickly went on over my head. I was going to make shimmering rose gold flowers to top off the Champagne cupcakes.  

This seems to be a similar product below if you can not find Sweet Sugarbelle near you..

I loved how the candy roses came out with the sparkling rose gold dust, and you may have noticed already, I got carried away and sprayed the dust on the cupcake frosting as well. Did I mention I love sparkle and glitter?  I was having way too much fun!  

Another PSA - We found the candy icing roses too hard to eat, but I can assure you my step-daughter tried. Maybe next time I will make my own frosting roses, which I have done many moons ago. 

While adding the powder I was thinking the candy roses were too pretty to eat. I guess in a way they were. 

Below are a lot of photos I took to show a few serving ideas and inspiration. I placed the cupcakes on paper dollies, in Champagne coupes, and in vintage sherbet glasses.  If you like any of the photos, feel free to share or pin, but please make sure to give credit and link back to our site if you do. 

Little did I know the icing tips I had planned on using were too small for the look I wanted, so I ended up icing the cupcakes with a small rounded knife / spatula. 

Champagne Cupcakes in Champagne Coup

Just a PSA - I'm not sure if it was just my mix combined with the dusting powder, or the fact I had them under hot light for a couple of hours while I did some things around the house, but I would suggest that you don't place your cupcakes directly under hot lights, like under-kitchen-cabinet lights... it might dry out the frosting and crack like some of mine did as seen above.  The ones without cracks were packaged up for my mom's birthday.  These poor souls were eaten for our dessert. 

Vintage pink sherbet glasses came out of storage while I was having fun photographing these sparkly cupcakes.