Champagne Cupcakes

Champagne and weddings seem to go hand in hand so why not try it in a cupcake form? I had my doubts I would be able to pull these off but they ended up tasting great. Not exactly a super sweet cupcake but I could taste the champagne flavor so I'm calling it a success! These cupcakes were pretty fluffy and since they aren't overly sweet, you could use a filling and heavy frosting without too much of a sugar rush. To give the cakes a more champagne taste, I brushed each one with a champagne/powdered sugar mixture. I paired them with a basic butter cream. Not going to lie, I tried a champagne frosting but that backfired pretty quickly. Next time I make these I'm going to invest in some champagne extract for the frosting and cupcakes.

Recipe from Home Is Where The Holmans Are:

Cupcakes:
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup champagne
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners (recipe yields about 22 cupcakes). 

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  Add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of champagne combined with vanilla. 

In a clean bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until they hold stiff peaks.  Fold in about 1/3 of the egg whites to lighten the batter then gently fold in the remaining egg whites.  Transfer batter to cupcake liners, filling each about 2/3 of the way full.  Bake approximately twenty minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool about five minutes in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.