This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. Please Read Our Disclosure Policy.
Sparkling Champagne Cranberry Cupcakes- vanilla cupcakes made with champagne and orange zest topped with a fresh cranberry and champagne frosting, then topped off with sparkling cranberries!
Ok whether it’s New Year’s or you just have a reason to celebrate. Cupcakes with champagne in them. Oh yea, baby. Champagne in the cupcake and in the frosting.
Recently, I shared with you how to make sparkling cranberries. But I also said I was going to make a fun dessert with them. I hope you agree that I delivered.
These Sparkling Cranberry Champagne Cupcakes. Oh yes my friend. If you are looking for the perfect make ahead dessert to wow guests with at your New Year’s Eve party. Stop looking.
How To Make These Cranberry Champagne Cupcakes
-
To make the cupcakes: Preheat your oven to 350°F. Prepare a muffin with cupcake liners. Set aside.
-
In a mixing bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, and salt.Whisk to combine.
-
In a second mixing bowl with hand mixer (or stand mixer) combine your melted butter and sugar. Mix to combine. Add in your eggs one at a time, whisking to combine after each addition. 4. Add in your vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
-
Alternately, add your champagne and flour, beginning and ending with your flour. Be careful not to overmix.
-
Scoop the batter into your prepared pans using a cookie scoop. Fill about 2/3 full. Do not overfill.Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven. Remove cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool onto a wire cooling rack before frosting.
How To Make The Cranberry Buttercream
Sparkling cranberries are fun and festive and seemed to be pair perfect with the champagne in these cupcakes. Of course if you are short on time, skip the cranberries and just go with sparkling sanding sugar or straight up sprinkles. I mean these cupcakes just scream party don’t they?
I used my go to vanilla cupcakes and vanilla frosting. I simply swapped out the milk and used champagne instead in the cupcake recipe. I also added the zest of an orange to this cupcake. I love cranberries and orange together so I knew this would be a happy marriage.
For the frosting, I added to a cranberry puree. If you have ever made your own cranberry sauce before for Thanksgiving then you are halfway there. I simply cooked cranberries over a stove with a little water and sugar until the cranberries cooked down. I then pressed the mixture through a sieve so that my puree was smooth. I also added some bubbly straight into my frosting. If you wanted, you could leave this out, since it wouldn’t be baked off these would be considered “adult only” cupcakes.
Tips To Make These Cranberry Champagne Cupcakes
- You will need cake flour. Cake flour helps to make them light and fluffy. If you do not have cake flour on hand, make some yourself. For ever cup of flour, remove 1 tablespoon and replace with cornstarch, then sift.
- Be sure not to overmix your cupcakes. When you add the last of your flour, mix again for 15 seconds. This will incorporate some air, but also not enough to overmix them.
- Scoop evenly. Use a cookie scoop to make sure that all your cupcakes are the same size. Same sized cupcakes means they will all bake evenly!
For More Help In Making Cupcakes Check Out These Posts:
- Ultimate Guide To Baking Cupcakes At Home
- Ultimate Guide To Making The Best Buttercream Icing
- Ultimate Guide To Decorating Cupcakes For Beginners
- Cupcakes 101: 10 Tips To Bake Perfect Cupcakes (Life As A Strawberry)
- How To Bake Perfect Cupcakes (Handle The Heat)
- 10 Tips For Baking The BEST cupcakes (Sally’s Baking Addiction)
Tools Used To Make These Cupcakes:
- Cupcake Pans – My favorite cupcake pans are these ones from Wilton and these ones from Chicago Metallic.
- Large Piping Tips – To get those professional looking cupcakes you need large cupcake tips. You could get a set like this one, or individual cupcake tips from Ateco (which are the ones I own).
- Greaseproof Cupcake Liners– I love the greaseproof ones so they still look nice after baking.
- Piping bags – You can use reusable piping bags or disposable piping bags (which is my preference). I prefer to use the 18-inch bags so I do not have to refill as often!
Love Cranberries? Craving More? Check Out These Posts
- No Knead Cranberry Walnut Bread
- Pear Cranberry Crumble Pie
- Orange Cranberry Scones
- How To Make Sugared Cranberries
Sparkling Cranberry Champagne Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup champagne
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- zest of 1 orange
For the frosting
- 1 cup cranberries
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup + 3 Tbs champagne divided
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 1/2 sticks butter 1 1/4 cups softened to room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
For the sparkling cranberries
- 6 ounces fresh cranberries
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup sugar divided
Instructions
- To make the cupcakes: Preheat your oven to 350F. Prepare a muffin with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, and salt.Whisk to combine.
- In a second mixing bowl with hand mixer (or stand mixer) combine your melted butter and sugar. Mix to combine. Add in your eggs one at a time, whisking to combine after each addition. 4. Add in your vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
- Alternately, add your champagne and flour, beginning and ending with your flour. Be careful not to overmix.
- Scoop the batter into your prepared pans using a cookie scoop. Fill about 2/3 full. Do not overfill.Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven. Remove cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool onto a wire cooling rack before frosting.
For the sparkling cranberries
- Place a cooling rack over a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
- To a medium saucepan, add in your 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water and heat over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Add in your cranberries to coat in the mixture. Remove from the heat.
- Place the cranberries on the cooling rack to dry for about an hour.
- Once dry, roll the cranberries in the remaining 3/4 cup sugar. Place back on the cooling rack to dry again
For the frosting
- In a medium saucepan, combine the cranberries, water, champagne, and 1/4 cup sugar. Heat over medium heat for 5-7 minutes until the cranberries break down. Then place the mixture in a food processor and pulse. Then place the mixture into a fine mesh seive set over a bowl, pushing the mixture through. You should end up with about a 1/2 cup of puree. Set aside to cool.
- In your stand mixer, add your butter and cream until smooth. Add in your powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Mix on low until combined. Add in your 3 tablespoons champagne, and 1 teaspoon vanilla, and mix until combined. If your frosting begins to curdle when you add the champagne, just simply keep mixing, it will smooth out. Add in the cooled cranberry puree. Mix on medium speed for 8 minutes until light and fluffy. Place your frosting in a piping bag with a decorating piping tip added (I used Ateco closed star tip #847) and pipe the frosting on top of each cupcake. Top with the sparkling cranberries.
Notes
- You will need cake flour. Cake flour helps to make them light and fluffy. If you do not have cake flour on hand, make some yourself. For ever cup of flour, remove 1 tablespoon and replace with cornstarch, then sift.
- Be sure not to overmix your cupcakes. When you add the last of your flour, mix again for 15 seconds. This will incorporate some air, but also not enough to overmix them.
- Scoop evenly. Use a cookie scoop to make sure that all your cupcakes are the same size. Same sized cupcakes means they will all bake evenly!
Nutrition
Rojo says
The cupcake recipe is delicious and the icing with cranberry purée was extra special sparkly and cranberries were beautiful and simple to make! Thank you for this great recipe I will be making it over and over.
Question: would this vanilla cupcake batter be great for making a 3 or 4 layer cake?
Heather says
Hi Rojo, I’m so glad you loved them as much as we did! I haven’t tried but I think a 2 layer cake would be the yield.
Molly says
I would love to use this recipe for a layer cake I’m making for nye. What do you think the bake time and temp should be for 3 6″ rounds?
Heather says
Hi Molly, I can’t say for sure as I haven’t tried a 6″ round, but I would say around 20 minutes.