Raspberry Champagne Cupcakes (GF)

This recipe incorporates two of my biggest loves:

Champagne
AND
Cupcakes

One of the most fun parts of baking these cupcakes is enjoying the leftover champagne. :)

This recipe is for a moist champagne cake filled with raspberry curd and topped with a champagne french buttercream.

These cupcakes would be great for Valentine's Day, a wedding, or a bridal shower. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!

For the Champagne Cupcakes Makes 24 cupcakes:

1 cup superfine sweet rice flour
1 cup potato starch
1/2 cup sifted almond flour
1/4 cup, plus 1.5 tbsp sorghum flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 stick butter, unsalted
1/3 cup canola oil
6 egg whites
1 cup freshly opened champagne
Seeds from one vanilla bean

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and line two 12-cup muffin pans with cupcake liners.
Combine all of the flours, starches, salt, xanthan gum, and baking soda in a large bowl. Mix together well and set aside. Using a stand mixer, ceam together butter and oil. Add sugar mix for a couple of minutes until fluffy. Add egg whites and mix for another two minutes. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean and add to mixture, mix. Add 2/3 of the dry ingredients and mix until almost incorporated. Add champagne and remaining dry ingredients. Mix until fully combined, scraping sides of bowl.

Divide batter evenly between cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes, until cupcakes spring back to the touch.

For the Raspberry Curd:

1 cup fresh raspberry puree
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp unsalted butter

Combine raspberry puree, lemon juice, egg yolks, and 1/3 cup sugar in a small saucepan. Place heat on medium and whisk mixture constantly until thickened. Turn off from heat and add butter. Stir until smooth and combined. Pour mixture through sieve and place in fridge to cool.

For the Champagne Simple Syrup (optional)

1/2 cup champagne
1/2 cup sugar

Combine champagne and sugar in a small saucepan and heat until sugar is fully dissolved. Place in fridge to cool.

For the Champagne French Buttercream:

3 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup champagne
4 sticks butter, unsalted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place egg yolks and egg in bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Mix on medium high. Place sugar and champagne in small sauce pan, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves, and heat until mixture reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Once heat is reached, pour hot syrup into egg mixture as mixer is running. Continue mixing with whisk attachment until mixture is thick and fully cooled. Add butter piece by piece until fully combined. Switch to paddle attachment, add vanilla, and mix for another 2-3 minutes.

To assemble:

Once cupcakes have fully cooled, cut out the center of each one using a small paring knife. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of each cupcake with champagne simple syrup. Next, pipe raspberry curd into the center of each cupcake.

Decorate as desired.

For the White Chocolate Flowers:

These cupcakes were inspired by Cupcakes Couture's Mimosa cupcake. I love the pretty, yet slightly deconstructed and modern look of their chocolate flower cupcake designs.

To make each petal, I melted Wilton pink candy melts and piped petal shapes onto a parchment paper lined rolling pin. Before the chocolate dried, I used my finger to thin out and shape each petal.