Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes

These Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes are made with my super soft and moist strawberry cupcakes topped with a creamy and tangy pink Moscato infused strawberry cream cheese frosting. They’re perfect for all the festive Spring celebrations!

Cupcakes and sparkling wine, the perfect pair for bridal showers, bachelorette parties, Valentine’s Day or even just a girls’ night in. These strawberry champagne cupcakes are so soft and moist thanks to all the pureed strawberry and buttermilk in the cake batter. It is also not too sweet, and is just the perfect base for the creamy, tangy Pink Moscato frosting.

If you are planning a party, may I suggest adding these strawberry truffles and these strawberry shortbread cookies to your dessert spread? You’ll have an awesome all pink dessert bar!

Helpful tools

• A food processor to grind the freeze-dried strawberries into powder.
• A stand mixer or an electric hand mixer will be useful for making the frosting.
• A standard size muffin pan to bake the strawberry cupcakes in.
• A pastry bag with piping tips for decorating the cupcakes. I used a 1M tip here.

Ingredients and substitutions

As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips:

1. Strawberries – you’ll use both fresh and freeze-dried strawberries for this strawberry champange cupcake recipe.
2. Buttermilk – Typical store bought reduced fat buttermilk should work or make your own buttermilk by adding lemon juice, yogurt, or sour cream to regular milk.
3. Oil – vegetable or canola oil.
4. Egg
5. Sugar – granulated sugar is used in the strawberry cake batter and powdered sugar is used in the frosting.
6. Flour – all-purpose flour works just fine for this strawberry champagne cupcakes recipe, but you can also use cake flour for even softer crumbs.
7. Leavening agents – use both baking soda and baking powder.
8. Salt – adds complexity to the cake. I use kosher salt, but if you only have table salt, use half to two thirds as much.
9. Vanilla – Use only pure vanilla extract to add more flavor, warmth and complexity on top of the strawberry flavor.
10. Cream cheese – use full fat brick cream cheese for the frosting.
11. Unsalted butter – for the frosting.
12. Pink Moscato – or any other champange or sparkling wine you prefer.
13. Red food color – optional. Use only if you want to make the cake more pink like pictured. Otherwise, it will be a grey-ish pink like this strawberry cake.

How to make strawberry champagne cupcakes

The following instructions, step-by-step photos, and tips are here to help you visualize how to make the recipe. You can always skip straight to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

Make the cupcakes

First step, you’ll need to pulverize the freeze dried strawberry into a powder using a food processor or a good blender. I usually drape a kitchen tower over the food processor so the powder doesn’t puff up everywhere. Once done, let it settle for a bit before opening the lid.

Note: You’ll use half of the strawberry powder in the cake batter and half in the frosting.

Mix half of the strawberry powder together with flour, sugar and the rest of the dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl, stir to ensure even distribution. Set this aside.

Once you transfer the rest of the strawberry powder to a bowl or container, reserved for the frosting, you can use the same food processor to puree the fresh strawberries needed for the cupcake batter.

Tip: No need to wash the food processor for this step.

The strawberry puree gets mixed with the rest of the wet ingredient to make a pretty pink liquid mixture. Simply mix the wet ingredients by hand with a whisk in a mixing bowl.

Tip: If you’re using red food color to enhance the cupcake color, you’ll want to add it in this step.

Now add the flour mixture prepared earlier into the liquid mixture and fold with a spatula until the batter is just combined.

Tip: You could very well use an electric mixer to make the cupcake batter. But it’s quite easily done by hand.

Divide the batter into lined cupcake pan using a large ice cream/cookie scoop (about 2 oz). Bake the cupcakes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, perhaps with just a few crumbs attached.

Tip: I love using cookie scoop for cupcake batter, it makes the process quick and clean, a whole lot less drips. It’s an extremely cheap investment that you’ll end up using over and over again for all kind of cupcakes and cookies.

Make the strawberry champagne frosting

Beat together softened cream cheese, butter and vanilla until combined. Then add powdered sugar and strawberry powder. Mix at low speed to incorporate and then beat at higher speed until all ingredients are thoroughly combined to yield a fluffy frosting.

Now, add up to 3 tablespoons of Pink Moscato and beat the frosting again to combine.

More baker’s tips

• Using champagne in the cake batter – For more champagne flavor, you could also add it to the cake batter. I chose to only use it in the frosting because alcohol tend to dry out cakes. But if you want to try this, I recommend adding ¼ cup of Moscato and reduce the buttermilk to ¼ cup.
• Use a measuring cup instead – If you don’t have a large cookie scoop, use a ¼ cup measuring cup to divide the cupcake batter.
• Fix runny frosting – refrigerate your frosting if it seems too runny to use right away. That should helps solidify the butter and cream cheese. If that doesn’t help, you may need to add more powdered sugar to thicken it up. Don’t overbeat the frosting as this can make it runny too!
• A different frosting option – if you don’t like the tanginess of cream cheese frosting, you can infuse buttercream frosting with the champagne and freeze-dried strawberries instead.

Storage

You can keep strawberry champagne cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. They can last up to a week, but they will start to dry out, so it is best to enjoy them as soon as you can. In the freezer, they will last up to 3 months.

For the freezer, you want to flash freeze the frosted cupcakes on a baking sheet until they are frozen solid. Then, wrap them up in plastic and foil to protect them from freezer burn and freezer smell. Finally, store them in a container or freezer bag.

Let cold or frozen cupcakes come to room temperature before serving.

5 from 1 vote

Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes

By Trang Doan

These Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes are made with soft and moist strawberry cupcakes topped with a creamy and tangy Moscato infused strawberry cream cheese frosting.

Servings: 12 cupcakes

Prep Time: 30 minutes mins

Cook Time: 17 minutes mins

Total Time: 47 minutes mins

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Equipment

• Food Processor
• Stand Mixer
• Standard Size Muffin Pan

Ingredients 

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Cupcakes

• ▢ ¼ cup freeze dried strawberry powder, ½ oz, 14 g
• ▢ 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour, 200 g
• ▢ ⅔ cup granulated sugar, 133 g
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ ½ cup pureed strawberry, 4 oz, 113 g
• ▢ ⅓ cup buttermilk, room temperature, 74 g
• ▢ ¼ cup vegetable oil, 50 g
• ▢ 1 large egg, room temperature
• ▢ ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 8 drops red food color, optional

Frosting

• ▢ 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature, 227 g
• ▢ 8 oz unsalted butter, room temperature, 227 g
• ▢ ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 cup powder sugar, 100 g
• ▢ ¼ cup freeze dried strawberry powder, ½ oz, 14 g
• ▢ 3 tablespoon Pink Moscato

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Instructions 

Prepare the strawberry powder

• Add 1 oz of freeze dried strawberry to a food processor and process until a powder forms. Keep a kitchen towel draped over the food processor while it’s working to prevent the strawberry powder to escape and fly everywhere.
• This should yield ½ cup. Use ¼ cup for the cupcake batter and the remaining ¼ cup for the strawberry cream cheese frosting.

Make the cupcakes

• Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
• Add ¼ cup of strawberry powder to a small mixing bowl along with flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix with a whisk to distribute evenly. Set aside.
• In the same food processor used previously for the freeze dried strawberry, add the fresh strawberry and puree. Add strawberry puree in a medium mixing bowl along with buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, vanilla extract, and red food color (if using). Beat together with a whisk until smooth.
• Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredient mixture and fold until just combined.
• Use a large ice cream scoop to divide batter into the previously prepared muffin pan. One flat scoop of batter for each cupcake cavity, or about ¼ cup of batter each.
• Bake in the middle oven rack for 16 – 17 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to the touch, remove cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the frosting

• Allow the cream cheese and butter to come to room temperature and softened before you get started. It can speed up the process to cut them into small cubes.
• In the stand mixer bowl, add softened butter and cream cheese along with the pure vanilla extract, mix with the whisk attachment at medium low speed and gradually increase speed to medium high and beat until thoroughly combined.
• Stop the mixer to add powder sugar and the remaining ¼ cup of strawberry powder, mix at low speed to incorporate the powder mixture into the cream mixture, then gradually increase speed to medium high and beat until thoroughly combined and fluffy.
• Add up to 3 tablespoons of Moscato and beat again until combined. Use more or less depending on your preference, you can taste the frosting before adding more.
• Add a piping tip of your choice to a pastry bag, fill with the frosting and add frosting to the cooled cupcakes.

Notes

• I didn’t use Moscato in the cupcake batter since alcohol tend to dry out cakes. But for more champagne flavor you could try adding ¼ cup of Moscato and reduce the buttermilk to ¼ cup.
• 1 package of freeze dried strawberry I buy from Target is typically 1 oz.
• These cupcakes are best enjoyed the day they are made, but they can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow them to come to room temperature before serving.
• Unfrosted cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature overnight, then add frosting in the morning, if desired. Frosted cupcakes should be refrigerated if not eaten right away.

Nutrition

Serving: 95g, Calories: 342kcal

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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