A fluffy vanilla cupcake with champagne infused strawberries topped with a champagne buttercream and drizzled with dark chocolate.

The frosting is out of this world it's so fluffy and you can definitely taste the champagne. The cake is really light and moist too.

The recipe called to fold the chopped strawberries into the batter but I thought this made them a bit soggy. I would suggest filling the center with the strawberries after they're cooked. I would think that cooking the strawberries would burn off the alcohol on the strawberries.

I put heart sprinkles, glitter, chocolate and a strawberry on top making them a little busy but all or any combination of these would look nice.

I used a small bottle of sparkling pink rose

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Ingredients

1/2 cup strawberries chopped

1/2 cup champagne

2 1/2 cups self rising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

115g unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs at room temperature

2 1/4 tsp vanilla

champagne flavoring (optional)
1 1/4 cup whole milk at room temperature (I used semi-skimmed and I'm pretty sure it was not at room temerature)

230g unsalted butter, at room temperature (2 sticks)

4 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup champagne

Chocolate chips melted in the microwave and drizzled on top of the buttercream

1. Chop 1/2 cup strawberries into small pieces. Place into a medium sized bowl and pour 1/2 cup champagne over top and let them soak.

Chop them smaller than this

2. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C and line muffin tray with paper liners. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly until combined.

3. Add the vanilla extract and champagne flavor, if using. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Add one third of the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, ending with the milk and continuously beating. I added some pink gel color at this point but it was too much and ended up hot pink. If you want to add the strawberries to the batter do this now and fold them in.

4. Fill each cup two thirds full and bake for 20-25 minutes. Place on a cooling rack to cool completely.

5. Make the butter cream by creaming the butter and sifted icing sugar together on medium speed until fluffy. Add the vanilla, milk, salt and champagne and beat on high speed until light and fluffy.

6. Once the cupcakes are cool cut out the center and add the champagne infused strawberries and top with a swirl of buttercream.

7. If desired add a drizzle of melted chocolate and top with a halved strawberry.