Easy Recipe for Champagne Cupcakes

These Champagne Cupcakes are soft and moist with a rich buttercream frosting and a hint of champagne flavor. Perfect for ringing in the new year or honoring any special occasion.

Using a vanilla cake mix for these cupcakes makes them super easy to pull together. With just 4 ingredients needed for the cupcakes, they can be ready in no time at all.

Both the cupcakes and the icing call for pink champagne but you can use any kind of champagne you have on hand, sparkling wine or prosecco. Or if you’d rather not use any alcohol apple juice works well too. Since this recipe makes 2 dozen you could even do half with champagne for the adults and half without for the kids. Just make sure you remember which is which!

You can make these cupcakes a few days in advance of your celebration and get them off your to-do list and store them in the fridge. You can also freeze them without the icing and ice and decorate them once they defrost.

If you love cupcakes as much as I do, you need to try these other recipes I have: Sprinkle Cupcakes With Funfetti Cake Mix, Easy Wedding Cake Cupcakes With Buttercream Frosting, Dr. Pepper Chocolate Cupcakes, or these Easy 2 Ingredient Sunkist Orange Soda Cupcakes.

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Why You’ll Love These Champagne Cupcakes

• Perfect treat for New Year’s eve or New Year’s day – fun and festive-looking.
• Come together quickly and easily with a vanilla cake mix.
• Soft, flaky cupcake with a rich buttercream frosting.
• Fun to dress up for any occasion.

Equipment To Make Cupcakes

• Cupcake tray
• Mixing bowl
• Electric or hand mixer
• Piping tips

Ingredients To Make Champagne Cupcakes

Cupcakes

• 1 box vanilla cake mix
• 1 cup pink champagne
• ½ cup oil
• 3 eggs

Frosting

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• ¼ cup pink champagne
• 1 tbsp milk
• 4-5 cups powdered sugar
• Optional: gold sprinkles

How To Make These Cupcakes

Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two 12-cup cupcake pans with cupcake liners and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together cake mix, champagne, oil, and 3 eggs until well incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the liners of the prepared cupcake pans.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Frosting

Using an electric mixture, whip butter until creamy.

Add in champagne, milk, and powdered sugar 1 cup at a time.

Whip until well incorporated, adding 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until desired consistency is reached.

Load piping bag with 2M piping tip and prepared frosting.

Frost cupcakes and decorate them with gold sprinkles

To make non-alcoholic cupcakes you can use blush sparkling apple juice.

Variations

• Use a different cake mix option to change the flavor; strawberry, French vanilla or red velvet would all work well.
• Add chocolate chips to the batter; semi-sweet, dark or milk chocolate would all work well in my opinion but I love adding chocolate to everything.
• Decorate with festive cake decorations like mini party hats, streamers or sparklers for New Year’s or hearts for Valentine’s Day.
• Color the frosting using food dies for more visual appeal. Bright pink icing is one of my favorites.
• Enhance the flavor of the icing by adding a fruit extract or fruit puree.
• Make twice as many and bake the cupcakes in a mini muffin tray.

Tips and Tricks

• Any kind of cake mix will work in this cupcake recipe. I like using vanilla but you could always choose another flavor.
• You can use any kind of milk to make the frosting or even water.
• Let the eggs come to room temperature before you begin preparing the cupcakes.
• Use a glass measuring cup to measure the liquids, it is more precise.
• Fill the cupcake wells about 2/3 of the way so you leave enough room for them to rise.
• Make sure the cupcakes are cool to the touch when you apply the frosting otherwise it will drop off.

FAQs

Can I use a from scratch vanilla cake or cupcake recipe instead of using a mix?

I haven’t tested this recipe with a homemade vanilla cake so I am not quite sure it will work. You can most definitely make a from scratch vanilla cake or vanilla cupcakes and frost with the champagne frosting however if you use a from scratch recipe and add the champagne to it it may not work.

Can I feed these champagne cupcakes to my kids?

Though some of the alcohol will bake off, I would not recommend serving these to children if you use champagne in them. If you are using the apple juice as a substitute then they would be fine for kids.

What kind of oil do you recommend for these cupcakes?

Any kind of mild flavored cooking oil will work. I like to use grapeseed or canola oil in my baking.

What should I do with leftover frosting?

If you have frosting leftover you can store it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week or in the freezer for up to a month.

How should I store these champagne cupcakes?

These cupcakes can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days. If you want to freeze them I recommend you freeze them unfrosted and frost just before you serve them.

Can I use store bought icing?

You can add the champagne to store bought icing however it will then thin out the icing so you’ll need to add some icing sugar to thicken it up.