Champagne Cupcakes

A few days before New Years when the work week was quiet I will admit I was able to catch some of Oprah. Okay, it's also only because I knew the Georgetown Cupcake girls were going to be on, so I was watching for them. And I was pleasantly surprised with the New Years Eve dish they made. I was expecting a cupcake for sure, but they made more of a production with it. Sparklers and all! 


The cupcake they made was the Strawberry Champagne Sparklers and I decided since I was hosting my friends at my apartment for our New Years pre-going out party I would make these as a special surprise. Since the Georgetown girls were nice enough to share their recipe on Oprah.com I had to take advantage of this opportunity. So I enlisted my younger sister to spend the afternoon baking with me, and here is how our adventures went. 


The cupcakes: These were simple to make. Since most of my friend's don't have a big sweet-tooth I decided to just make the mini-cupcakes. (Plus I don't trust my friends with fire/sparklers inside my apartment.) Recommendation - if you are just going to make the cupcakes you can add a little more of the cut-up strawberries. 


The icing: This is tricky because you want to pick a sweet rose Champagne, so it's good to have an idea of what your options taste like. But I guessed, and picked a moderately priced Italian sparkling Rose and liked my outcome. I came just a little short on confectioner's sugar though and then used the full 1/2 of Champagne. It turned out that it was too much champagne so it never became a creamy, firm texture. It tasted fine, maybe a little too sugary. So be sure to have plenty of confectioner's sugar and go shy on Champagne. Whip this well and add things slowly until you have the perfect balance, would be my recommendation. 


The ganache: Thank goodness I had my sister helping me bake. She knew just how to melt the chocolate. I would never have understood the directions. And she did a great job. Our chocolate came out perfect. But watch the chocolate carefully, any slight variation can turn perfect ganache into a disaster in seconds. Also Nestles semi-sweet chocolate chips work great.  


Just look at these cupcakes. Given the disaster with the icing, it was hard to use, but we did a good job making it work. Aren't these cute? We topped them with strawberries and some that we didn't put ganache on - for crazies that don't like chocolate - I put sprinkles on top to keep them separate. But I realized these cupcakes really need the ganache, it adds so much to the the flavor and breaks up the power of the sugar and Champagne sweetness.  

So we gathered up all the cupcakes and divided it up among friends and family. We gave it among numerous people, some very harsh critics, but everyone loved them! For a first time making them, I have to say we really made yummy cupcakes worth baking and sharing again. (My next time though I will have more visually appealing icing.) 


Here is the recipe on Oprah.com: Georgetown Cupcake's Strawberry Champagne Sparkler Cupcakes 
And now they have listed a low-fat recipe option. 
Here is their segment on Oprah.