Champagne Cupcakes

So my friend Helen and I decided to hold a Ladies Day for a bunch of friends.  We had a friend come and share her Pure Romance business with us.  It was a fun and educational day.  It was also a great day to get together with friends that I don't see nearly often enough, catch up on our lives, and share in a little laughter. Helen and I are both great cooks, so the food was delicious.  We had Buffalo Chicken Dip, Spinach Dip, fun colored drinks with umbrellas, cucumber with hummus, and more food than an army could eat.  We made a great dent in it and everyone went home happy.  I was in charge of making cupcakes and after being inspired by a drink at a restaurant in Bellefonte called The Smashing Pumpkin, I decided to try to make a cupcake version of that, as well as Champagne Cupcakes.  Women occasionally need pampered and this was going to be our day.  My Smashing Pumpkin Cupcake needs some reworking, but it'll be appearing on the blog soon.  However, the Champagne Cupcake recipe that I used from Sprinkle Bakes, is a wonderful recipe and I used the cake and butter cream recipe, but I made some changes to the filling recipe.   I used a sweet champagne, I used Cupcake Vineyards Prosecco.  I chose this champagne after much staring and reading all the labels of all the sparkling wine on the shelves.  I felt that the hints peaches, nectarines, and the fruity burst would be perfect in cupcakes.  Turns out, I'm right.  So chose a champagne or prosecco that you think could be good in a cupcake because you cook down the alcohol, which will enhance the flavor.  I made some changes to the filling recipe, for some reason, I thought it tasted weird when I made it from the original recipe, so the few changes I've made are here.  If you're looking for an easy but decadent, show stopping cupcakes, these are it!

Cake: 

1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup champagne, processco, or sparkling wine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and mix.    Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.  Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup champagne and 1/2 cup sour cream (mixture will fizz and bubble a little).  Add flour and champagne mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour.  Batter will be thick.

Fill cupcake papers  3/4 of the way to the top of the liner with batter.  Bake for 17-22 minutes.  Set aside.

Champagne Pastry Creme Filling:
1/2 cup heavy cream, divided
1/2 cup champagne or prosecco
2 tbsp cornstarch 
5 tbsp granulated sugar
1 whole egg
2 tbsp unsalted butter
In a medium bowl, whisk cornstarch in 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Combine the remaining heavy cream, sugar and 1/2 cup champagne in a saucepan; bring to a boil then remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg  into the cornstarch/heavy cream mixture.  Pour 1/3 of boiling champagne mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so the eggs do not cook.  Return the remaining champagne/heavy cream mixture to a boil.  Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens.  Remove from heat and beat in the butter.
Cut a divot into the top of each cupcake and fill with champagne cream.  Fill so that the filling is almost level to the top.  

Champagne Frosting:
1 cup plus 1 tbsp. champagne or prosecco
2 sticks of butter softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Place 1 cup of champagne in a small saucepan.  Simmer over medium-high heat until reduced to 2 tablespoons.  Transfer to a small bowl or condiment cup and allow to cool.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream softened butter and powdered sugar together.  Once the frosting is thick and fluffy, pour in the reduced 2 tbsp. champagne plus  1 tbsp. champagne from the bottle and mix well.

Decorate with fun sprinkles... or take them to your party and bring several small bags of Pop Rocks.  Before each guest takes a cupcake, sprinkle them with Pop Rocks.  This will simulate the fizz that champagne has!  Guests gets a sweet treat with a surprise fizzzz!