Champagne Cupcakelettes

"What should we do for dinner?" was the question Charisse asked the other day. "Cupcakes" came the answer. Yup, cupcakes is what Eric came home with a hankering for and letting up on that dream was not on his agenda. As Charisse had a one sided discussion about dinner, Eric sat and surreptitiously dreamed of different kinds of cupcakes. Red velvet, rich chocolate, cream cheese frosting whipped cream frosting, frosting, Mmmmmmm. After almost 20 minutes of "how about a nice homemade salad or some bread pudding?" being answered with "Hmm, no, I don't think those flavors would make a good cupcake" Charisse gave up and threw her recipe book at him and said "Fine! We can have cupcakes for DESSERT!" Eric earned that lump for sure, but the result was one serious cupcake, Champagne Cupcakelettes! Thats right, mini cupcakes with Champagne. These were cause for some serious celebration, so much so we ended up needing another bottle to finish the icing. Okay, so we were actually celebrating the instillation of grass in the backyard, but these little jems are totally worth a celebration in their own right. 

So last week it was 65* and sunny all weekend here in the Bay Area, we put some serious time into the backyard, built a fence for the garden and generally got the backyard moving, Eric also ordered some grass, to be delivered the following Saturday morning. Dan agreed to come over again and help put it in (he helped with the front yard too, he's building up some serious credit for when he finally buys a house) and things were good. By Saturday morning we were in the middle of the biggest storm of the season, hail, ice, gail force winds and a tornado warning (and actual tornado in some parts of the bay). Eric has not the best timing but they got it done, ended up covered in mud and now our backyard has a yard instead of a mud patch reminiscent of a battlefield. Now to only keep the dog off of her newfound playground for two weeks...

Printable Recipe!

Champagne Cupcakelettes 
What You Will Need

2 3/4 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup champagne
6 egg whites

Champagne Buttercream Frosting
What You Will Need

3 1/4 cup powered sugar
1 cup butter (room temp.)
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs champagne

Preheat oven to 350*

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Sift dry ingredients together and mix into batter alternating with champagne until all the is incorporated. At this point, the batter will be pretty thick but don't worry! In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into batter. 

Line muffin tins with paper baking cups, I used my mini muffin mold for bite sized cupcakes, but feel free to use regular sized tins. Fill cups almost to top and bake for around 20-25 minutes for mini cupcakes, 30-35 for regular sized cupcakes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely. 

To make the frosting:

Cream butter and powered sugar together until smooth, add in champagne and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes until fluffy. 

adapted from http://gimmesomeoven.com/