Champagne Cupcakes - Happy Valentine's Day

Okay, I admit that there now appears to be a trend in my most recent postings . . .

But I had to try making these cupcakes after seeing a version of them on Cupcake Wars. The cake here is a variation on a standard white cake recipe with about 3/4 cup of Chandon Extra Dry Riche sparkling wine added. I think the sweeter the champagne (or sparkling wine), the better this cupcake is, although dessert wines would probably be overdoing it. When looking up other bakers' attempts at champagne cupcakes, there were many suggestions for adding strawberries or using strawberry flavored wines. However, I can tell you that a simple, standard champagne works perfectly well, and I was thrilled with how light and subtly sweet this cupcake was.

To get some berry flavors in there, I topped the cupcake with Chambord buttercream. For those of you who are new to Chambord, I discovered this raspberry liqueur in a magazine ad—the kind that has the "open here and smell" panel that usually accompanies perfume ads. Since then, I have been obsessed with this liqueur's delicious scent! Chambord alone doesn't add sufficient coloring (unless you're going to use the entire bottle . . .), so I added a dab of pink food coloring. Then I topped with some sanding sugar and white pearls. Sparkly, sprinkled pink cupcakes aren't normally my style, but hey, it's Valentine's Day.