Grown-Up Cupcakes

We had some friends staying with us New Year's Eve.  We decided to forgo any crazy ball-dropping, hangover-inducing, babysitter-involving parties and instead opted for a quiet evening inside playing board games, BUT I still wanted a special recipe and found these beauties on Pinterest:

And wouldn't you know it, they are as tasty as they are beautiful.  I have never been impressed by a cupcake before, and now that I know I can make something like this, I may never stop.  This could be dangerous.

Check out Sprinkle Bakes for the original recipe.  I followed it exactly.

Mmmmm, butter.  Can't go wrong.  It's a fairly basic batter, I imagine, though I don't make a lot of cakes from scratch so I wouldn't really know, except these are PACKED with bubbly, fruity champagne flavor.  I couldn't believe how much of the champagne flavor came through in the cake.  If you make these, taste the champagne and make sure you really like it before you invest the effort in these.  The batter is thick and I actually measured the scoops into the muffin pan, as the recipe calls for, because I really wanted them to be perfect AND THEY WERE.

Gorgeous.

You cut a divot in the cupcake for the filling.  The filling takes a bit of effort, and possibly an extra set of hands.  You may want to read up on tempering eggs before you start if you've never done it before.  This is something you do when you add a hot liquid to raw eggs.  You don't want the eggs to scramble, so there is some technique involved.

Fill the cupcakes, then trim the cone-shaped cut-out to make a lid and top the cupcake.  The filling also has a great champagne flavor to it.

The icing is the sweetest part, and my favorite :)  It's just butter, sugar, and champagne.  I mean, come on.

You reduce the champagne first to concentrate the flavor before adding it to the whipped butter and sugar.

Instead of slapping it on with a butter knife I went all-out and used a piping bag with a star-shaped tip.  You can get them inexpensively at the grocery store or you can use a gallon ziploc bag.  I ran out of icing doing it this way, so just be aware of that.  You just start at the outside, apply even pressure, and spiral your way in.  I do a complete bottom layer before moving upward, so that is really as much icing as it looks like.

These are extremely rich and decadent.  I almost (almost) had trouble finishing a whole one, but have had several now.  They also have a bit of raw champagne in them, so I wasn't about to let my kids gorge themselves on them.  That being said, I had to give them each a little taste, and they didn't care for them.  So overall not a kid-friendly dessert.  I'm strangely comfortable with that.

I found these pink guys at Michael's for less money than I could find them online.

SO festive and adorable.  Reminiscent of champagne :) And you really can do it all by yourself.  If I can, you can.  I actually found them to be easier than many of the Christmas cookies I attempted.  I did warn my husband about these for several days so he knew exactly how much childcare would be required on his part.  They are time-consuming, especially if you completely finish one part before moving onto the next, as you should.

Gooey and delicious.

Happy New Year from the 6 of us <3