Pink Champagne Cupcakes Recipe

These fluffy pink champagne cupcakes are worthy of a celebration but can be eaten any day of the week.

Light, and moist pink champagne cupcakes frosted with delicious, fluffy, subtly sweet pink champagne buttercream frosting it’s a delicious cupcake for any special occasion such as wedding showers, valentine’s day, a baby shower, bridal shower, mother’s day, new year’s eve party, or just dessert.

What fruit goes with pink Champagne?

Strawberry

So? We start with a strawberry cake mix because the dessert should complement the pink champagne.

It tastes like strawberries and champagne with sweet notes of vanilla and a hint of tanginess.

It’s sort of a retro dessert.

Time travel back to the 1950s or 1960s in a star-studded Hollywood scene. Champagne corks popping from elegant bottles as they celebrate the Hollywood Renaissance. Their champagne choice symbolized the pinnacle of elegance and high society with the subtle hue of pink.

Pink Champagne cake is believed to have originated in the 1950s and 1960s on the west coast of the United States as a popular cake for showers, weddings, and celebrations.

The Modesto Bee ran a display ad in 1961 for the Yosemite Bakery describing the cake as “a tender, moist layer, split and filled, iced with French buttercream and champagne, then topped with shaved pink chocolate.”

Regardless of its origin, The Los Angeles Times has said this cake is one of its most requested cake recipes of all time. 

I’m not going to say the alcohol evaporates when you bake it, but I can share that my children have eaten these cupcakes and weren’t tipsy nor did it induce any issues.

 

About Pink Champagne:

Pink Champagne and Rose Champagne are the same.

Pink Champagne is sometimes sweeter and more fruity than rosé wine and comes with delicate bubbles and crisp, clean flavors.

It may be a Non-Vintage or Vintage Rosé Champagne and inherits the pink color from the skins of the red grapes Pinot noir or Pinot Meunier, grown only in the Champagne appellation of France.

Fun Fact: Champagne is the only region in the world where you can legally blend red wine and white wine to create a rosé. 

If you’re on a budget, the strawberry will give the pink hue and you can use a regular bottle of champagne or sparkling wine. Trust me, it doesn’t have to be the expensive champagnes to make these beautiful cupcakes capture the flavor.

But if you are interested, Town and Country Magazine shared that the best pink champagne is Ruinart Rosé with a suggested retail price of $88 per bottle.

Pink Champagne Cupcake Ingredients:

1 box strawberry boxed cake mix

1 1/3 cup pink champagne

1/3 cup Mediterranean oil or vegetable oil

3 eggs

 

How to Make Pink Champagne Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 335 degrees.

Place paper cupcake wrappers in a cupcake tin and spray lightly with nonstick spray.

In a medium bowl, or stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, combine cake mix, champagne, and oil and mix until well combined.

Add eggs one at a time and mix by hand, with an electric mixer or stand mixer until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl for an even batter.

Divide batter into 24 prepared cupcake liners 2/3 full (about 1/4 cups per cupcake). Avoid adding too much batter, or the cupcakes will overflow the cups as they bake and cause a mess.

Place in preheated oven and bake 20 minutes or until centers are set and bounce back when touched.

 

Frost with pink champagne buttercream frosting

Pink Champagne Buttercream

Champagne Frosting Ingredients

2 cups butter

5 cups powdered sugar

6 Tablespoons Pink Champagne (or any kind of champagne)

2 Tablespoons Strawberry Daiquiri drink mixer

½ teaspoon of Karo syrup

drops of pink food coloring for more color, optional.

How to Make Pink Champagne Buttercream

Cream butter on high speed with an electric mixer for 5 minutes until creamy.

With an electric mixer on low speed, slowly add powdered sugar in small batches until sugar is incorporated with the butter. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as you mix.

Add the pink champagne, drink mix, and Karo syrup (to add a glossy sheen and help the icing set up) and continue whipping on high speed until light and fluffy.

Transfer to a piping bag with a large star tip and frost cupcakes.

Storage:

Uneaten champagne cupcakes can be stored, loosely covered, or in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the fridge (covered) for up to 3 days.

You can also freeze cupcakes individually (wrap them tightly first with plastic wrap and/or foil) for up to 2 months.

It might just be these fluffy cupcakes are your new favorite cupcake.