These Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes are made with soft and moist strawberry cupcakes topped with a creamy and tangy Moscato infused strawberry cream cheese frosting. They’re perfect for any celebration!
And now it begins, all the berries filled recipes are going to flood your feed for the next couple weeks. We started earlier this week with these Raspberry White Chocolate Chip Muffins. Today, we have a dozen Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes! Strawberry cupcakes topped with a Pink Moscato strawberry cream cheese frosting. I know it is almost last minute to Easter, but I thought these could work for a fun Easter brunch. If not, you should pin them for the next party on your calendar. I’m sure there’s a birthday coming up at some point, or a bridal shower, a bachelorette party?
These strawberry champagne cupcakes are soft and moist thanks to all the pureed strawberry in the batter. The cake is not too sweet, and is just the perfect base for the creamy, tangy frosting. The sweet Pink Moscato is a fun addition which blends in effortlessly with the strawberry frosting. And of course, these also go well with the left-over bottle of Moscato. Cupcake and sparkling wine, what a pair!
The recipe calls for 8 drops of red food coloring, this is entirely optional. The food color is only needed if you want the cake to look pink. When I made these cupcakes without the food color, the batter baked up to a funky purple-ish grey-ish color. However, they still taste good. If you don’t care what color your cake will turn out, skip the food color, plus the frosting will cover up the top of the cakes anyways. So, what are you waiting for? Go get yourself a bottle of Moscato and get baking!
📖 Recipe card
Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup + 3 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 cup chopped strawberry – yields ½ cup when pureed
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 drops red food coloring (optional)
For the frosting:
- 8 oz. regular cream cheese – room temperature
- 4 oz. unsalted butter – room temperature
- ½ cup powder sugar
- 1 oz. freeze-dried strawberry – ground into a powder
- 3 tablespoon Pink Moscato
Instructions
To make the cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a regular size cupcake pan with cupcake liner.
- In a small bowl, measure out flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar, mix well with a whisk and set aside.
- Puree 1 cup of chopped strawberry in a food processor, this will yield approximately ½ cup of pureed strawberry.
- Add the pureed strawberry, buttermilk, oil, egg, vanilla extract and food color in a medium bowl and beat with a whisk to combine.
- Slowly pour the flour mixture into the liquid mixture while slowly whisking with the other hand. Mix only until combine, use a spatula to scrape any flour on the side of the bowl and mix up anything at the bottom of the bowl.
- Divide batter equally among 12 cups.
- Bake for 20 minutes until an inserted toothpick in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.
- Remove cupcakes from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
To make the frosting:
- Leave the cream cheese and butter out on the counter for a few hours until they reach room temperature and are softened, but not melted.
- Ground the freeze-dried strawberry in a food processor until a powder form.
- Cream the cream cheese and butter together with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy.
- Add powder sugar and powder freeze-dried strawberry, and mix to combine.
- Use a spatula to scrape the side and bottom of the mixing bowl as necessary.
- Finally, add Moscato to the frosting and mix well.
- Transfer frosting to a pastry bag fitted with the star tip, top cupcakes with frosting.
- Garnish cupcakes with sliced strawberries as desired.
Notes
2. Best enjoy within 1 – 2 days, but you can store cupcakes in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
3. Let cupcakes come to room temperature before serving if stored in the fridge.
4. I used a food processor to puree the fresh strawberry and ground the freeze-dried strawberry, but a blender should also work if you don’t have a food processor.
5. Red food color is optional for a more visible pink cake batter.
Marie
Perfect time for strawberries and for moscato, especially with Mothers Day coming up. These look so beautiful.
Trang
Thank you! They would be perfect for mom indeed 🙂