Super fluffy and moist cupcakes with a bright hint of champagne. These are simple to make and easily customizable—mimosa cupcakes for brunch, pink champagne cupcakes for bridal or baby showers, or classic for New Years! Pop your favorite bubbly and make these now!

I’ve been trying for like three years to make a good champagne cake. Yeah, yeah, I know these are cupcakes. But still. I did it! I made a champagne cake that tastes like champagne and also tastes good and isn’t crumbling or a dry brick. Because all of those have been my results in the past. So much wasted champagne. So much wasted cake.

I decided to work from my popular eggnog latte cake. I kept some of the brown sugar, which isn’t a common practice, but I found that this base cake recipe just does best with some brown sugar. I’ve tried it with all white sugar and no spices and it’s kinda tasteless. Which probably isn’t something I should admit, but it’s just true—you can’t always substitute any way you want and get an equally delicious cake.

And, not surprisingly, using champagne instead of eggnog really dried it out. In years past, I tried part milk and part champagne, but that wound up both dry and curdled. Ew.

Then I had an idea: add just a tiny bit of oil to make up for the dryness of the champagne. A simple idea, really.

The result? Perfection.

Which I realize may be a story you care nothing about, but it’s the kind of journey I find interesting. Like the confessional scenes on cooking and baking shows. That’s where like half my baking knowledge comes from.

How to make champagne cupcakes

First, reduce your champagne. I suggest measuring out 1/2 cup tap water into your pan first, so you know how low you want it to reduce to if your pan doesn’t have markers on the edge. Toss the water, wipe it out, and pour the champagne in. Bring to a boil then simmer at medium heat, until reduced to just over 1/2 cup (you need 1/3 cup for the cupcakes and 2-3 tablespoons for the buttercream). Set aside to cool completely.

Next, sift then whisk your flour, baking powder, and salt together. Don’t skip the sifting--it’s necessary to get the right crumb. Set aside.

Cream your butter and sugars until fluffy.

Beat in your egg then the oil then the vanilla extract.

Next, add half the flour, then 1/3 cup of the champagne reduction, then the rest of the flour, mixing on the lowest setting just until combined each time. Gently scrape the bowl.

Divide among your cupcake liners and bake just until a toothpick comes out with no raw batter (there should be some moist crumbs). Let cool 5-10 minutes in the pan then remove to cool completely.

While the cupcakes cool, make the buttercream. Beat the butter until smooth.

Add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Beat well after each addition.

Add 2 tablespoons of the champagne reduction and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla and salt. Taste, adding more champagne reduction or powdered sugar, as needed.

Frost cupcakes and decorate with gold sprinkles or sanding sugar.

Enjoy!

Notes for this recipe

Make your own cake flour

Cake flour is something I weirdly always have way too much of when I don’t need it and none of when I actually do need it. We always seem to use it up to get rid of it then regret that later. #firstworldproblems It’s actually easy to make a good substitute for cake flour (it’s not exactly the same but works well). For every cup of flour, you replace 2 tablespoons with cornstarch. Most people say to measure a cup of flour, remove 2 tablespoons, then add 2 of cornstarch.

But I swear by the spoon-then-level method where you spoon your flour into your measuring cup then (holding it over the flour bag/container), use a knife or flat blade to just scrape right over and level it. If you doonk your measuring cup into the flour, you will pack it in and get too much, yielding a dry dessert. So I suggest placing 2 tablespoons (of gently scooped) cornstarch into a 1 cup measuring cup then spooning and leveling your flour on top of that. It’s more accurate that way! For this recipe, it’s easiest to just make a cup of cake flour then save the leftovers for another time. :)

Don’t over reduce your champagne

Most champagne cake/frosting recipes call for reducing it to 1/3. Meaning technically I should tell you to start with 1 1/2 cups champagne and reduce that to 1/2 cup. In theory, the more you reduce it, the more intense the flavor, meaning it will still shine through after baked. However, I struggle to get mine to reduce quite that much before it loses all champagne taste from being cooked too long. I’ve found 15 minutes is the magic number, and if you go over that you begin to get a bitter flavor and lose the champagne taste. So, I start with only 10 ounces and reduce that to what I need. It’s condensed enough to get a strong flavor but not drive me crazy.

How to make a full batch

Reducing and increasing recipes really works best when you divide it by number of eggs. That’s why I took my favorite non-chocolate cake recipe and did a 1/3 recipe—I only used one of the 3 required eggs. You can double or triple this recipe to get about 20 or 30 cupcakes, respectively. However, once you reach a full batch (meaning triple this recipe), you’ll want to incorporate the flour and champagne in 5 additions instead of 3. It’s simple: add 1/3 the flour, then half the champagne, then another 1/3 flour, then the rest of the champagne, then the rest of the flour. Be sure to mix just until combined each time and always on low.

Make mimosa or pink champagne cupcakes!

To make mimosa cupcakes, add 1 tablespoon grated orange zest to the cupcakes when adding the last addition of flour. Add 1 tablespoon grated orange zest and 1/8 teaspoon orange extract (or to taste) to the buttercream, when you add the vanilla. Optionally, you can add some orange gel food coloring and orange sprinkles!

To make pink champagne cupcakes, you can use pink champagne (it will still contain some pink color when reduced) and add a tiny bit of pink gel food coloring (not liquid, that will alter the consistency) to the cake and buttercream.

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Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Buttercream

Print

prep time: 30-35 minutes

bake time: 13-17 minutes

total time: 52 minutes

Servings: 9 cupcakes (see note above for full batch versions)

Ingredients:

for the champagne cupcakes

10 ounces of your favorite champagne or sparkling wine
⅔ cup plus 2 teaspoons cake flour, spooned then leveled (see note above for making your own)
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 scant tablespoon avocado or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the champagne buttercream

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) European style butter, room temperature
2-3 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons champagne reduction
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt

Instructions:

reduce the champagne

First, reduce your champagne. You’ll use some in your cupcakes and some in the buttercream. I’ve found the best way is to first measure out how much you need in the end (in this case, just over ½ cup). Pour that much plain tap water into your small saucepan, and make a mental note of how high that level is. This is how low you want the champagne to reduce to.
Next, pour your champagne into the small saucepan and bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium and simmer until reduced to just over ½ cup. It should take 10-15 minutes. See note above for more details on not burning your champagne. Set aside to cool completely. This can be done a day or two ahead of time if sealed tightly in a jar.

make the cupcakes

Next, make your cupcakes. Preheat your oven to 325 and line a cupcake pan with 9-12 liners. I got 9 cupcakes out of this recipe, but I also didn’t have any liners and just sprayed the pan with baking spray.
Sift then whisk your flour, baking powder, and salt together. Don’t skip the sifting--it’s necessary to get the right crumb. Set aside.
Cream your butter and sugars in a medium mixing bowl with hand beaters (I found this was too small a recipe to use my stand mixer). Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl then add your egg and beat on medium until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add the oil and beat again on medium until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Add your vanilla and beat on medium until fully incorporated.
Scrape down the bowl then add half of the flour mixture. Beat on lowest speed just until combined. Add ⅓ cup of the room temperature champagne reduction. Beat on lowest setting until just combined. Finally, add the rest of the flour and beat on lowest setting until just combined. Gently scrape the edge and bottom of the bowl. Don’t stir, just scraping it will fold any unmixed batter in enough.
Fill each cupcake liner just over ⅔ full (no more than ¾). Bake for 13-17 minutes, or just until a toothpick inserted in a center cupcake comes out with just moist crumbs and no unbaked batter. The tops may look wet but that’s okay. Let cool in the pan 5-10 minutes then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.

make the buttercream

While the cupcakes cool, make the buttercream. First, clean the beaters on your hand mixer then use them to beat the room temperature butter on high until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar and beat on low then slowly increase to high (to avoid a sugar cloud). Beat on high for about 30 seconds, until completely smooth. Add another cup of powdered sugar and repeat the process.
Scrape down the bowl then add 2 tablespoons of the champagne reduction and blend until smooth. Then add the vanilla and salt and beat again until smooth.
Taste the buttercream, adding another tablespoon of champagne or another cup of powdered sugar, as needed. 2 tablespoons champagne and just under 3 cups powdered sugar was perfect for me.
Scrape down the bowl then beat on high for 1-2 minutes, just to fluff up the frosting. This is optional but creates a great texture.

frost and decorate

Place buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a 1M piping tip. To create the rosettes you see here, start in the center and create a tight spiral with no gaps between lines. Finish with gold sanding sugar (optional).

Enjoy! Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days.