champagne mini cupcakes

Thank you to Christina from Eat for Two for her guest post at Eat, Live, Run for the awesome recipe for champagne cupcakes!!  It was incredibly easy to adapt to be gluten free, and I decided to alter the recipe to make mini cupcakes in lieu of 4 regular size desserts. 

I'm posting my adaptation to her recipe:

For the cupcakes:

• 1/4  cup oil (vegetable/canola/olive)
• Pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 duck egg
• 2 tablespoons champagne
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• a few drops of almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated tangerine zest
• 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon King Arthur Gluten Free Multi-Purpose Flour 
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of baking soda

For the frosting:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup (+ 1 tablespoon, separated) powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons champagne
• Candied orange peel for garnish (optional - I opted out)

Cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pan with mini liners.  
In a medium bowl, use a mixer to combine the oil, salt, and sugar.
Beat well for one minute until fluffy.
Add the egg, champagne, vanilla, almond extract, and orange zest and beat to combine. 
Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda. 
Beat lightly to combine—do not overmix. 

Shown here, the farm-fresh duck egg makes the batter more yellow than usual. 

Fill each muffin cup 1/2 to 3/4 full and bake for 15 minutes.
Test for doneness with a toothpick. 
Allow the cupcakes cool on a wire rack completely before frosting.

Yield: 24 cupcakes and 4 mini doughnuts (which I unfortunately overcooked) or 4 regular cupcakes
Personally, I much prefer mini bite-size cupcakes.


Frosting: 
Beat the butter, powdered sugar, and 3 tablespoons champagne in a medium bowl. 
If too wet, add the tablespoon of powdered sugar.  If too dry, add 1 tablespoon champagne. 

Frost cupcakes and serve.

I wasn't sure how much I liked the frosting (I found it a bit cloying [my favorite word I learned in 2011]) so I only frosted half of them. 

They were a hit at the New Year's Eve party we attended :)  What a great way to kick off 2012!!