Cupcakes and Cocktails: Girl's Night In

In addition to working full time and my baking/caking hobby on the side, I am also an Independent Stylist for Stella & Dot.  I think I started selling this gorgeous jewelry so I always had an excuse to throw a party!  This month we launched the new Spring Line and it is FABULOUS!  To show it off, I held my Spring Launch show this past weekend.  The party was held in the evening and the overall theme was Cupcakes and Cocktails.  The colors of hot pink and turquoise were inspired by Stella & Dot and were carried throughout the decor.  I dressed up the ribbon with sparkly jeweled embellishments to tie the dessert table into the jewelry table.  I also thought the hot pink tulips made it feel a little bit more like spring!

On the menu I featured Chocolate Espresso Martinis, Chambord and Champagne, and Stellatinis which were made from strawberry lemonade, vodka, and sprite.  Each drink was paired with it's cocktail inspired cupcake (yes, they had alcohol in them).

{Tasty Thursdays} Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes

Last week Oprah had the sisters from DC Cupcakes (AKA Georgetown Cupcake) on her show.  Since Georgetown Cupcake is pretty much in my backyard (not really but I could go on regular basis if I wanted to) I was intrigued to see what the Girls had in store for Oprah viewers.  You can watch the video clip here if you missed it.

I'm not a huge fan of Georgetown Cupcakes - I think their frosting is way too sweet and their cupcakes are tiny - but hey, who am I to judge when they have people lined up for hours for their sweet treats?  I decided the recipe would be fun to try anyway since I had a gathering to attend on New Year's Day.

Instead of making the recipe as they did, I made regular size cupcakes and did away with the whole champagne glass and sparklers thing.  I was not at my house and needed an easy dessert to create after making 150 cupcakes for a wedding the night prior (see last blog post).

I'm attaching a picture of the cupcakes as prepared for the Oprah show as mine were not ready for their close up!  The recipe called for a bit too much champagne in the frosting since mine looked as if it broke with the last little addition and it ended up being super sweet with all that powdered sugar.  The cupcakes were also super tiny - they rose and then fell.  Everyone loved them though - or so they said but I think I'll tweak the recipe a bit if I make them again.  If you never had a Georgetown Cupcake before, try this recipe because this is exactly what they taste like...

Servings: Serves 12

Ingredients

Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes (36 mini cupcakes, 3 per Champagne flute)

• 1/2 cup fresh strawberries , diced
• 1/2 cup good Champagne (sweet rose Champagne suggested)
• 2 1/2 cups flour , sifted
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder , sifted
• 1/4 Tsp. salt
• 8 Tbsp. (4 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs , at room temperature
• 2 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract + seeds from 1 vanilla bean(NOTE: move down to next line...see edits to other recipe)
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk , at room temperature

Champagne Buttercream Frosting

• 16 Tbsp. (8 ounces) unsalted butter
• 4 cups confectioner's sugar , sifted
• 1 tsp. whole milk
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup good Champagne (sweet rose Champagne suggested)

Strawberry Layer

• 24 fresh strawberries
• 1 cup good Champagne (sweet rose Champagne suggested)

Chocolate Ganache

• 2 cups high-quality semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup heavy cream

Directions

For Serving:

12 glass Champagne flutes

12 long spoons

12 indoor-safe sparkler candles

Step 1: Baking the Mini Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 2 mini cupcake pans with 36 mini baking cups or grease pans with butter if not using baking cups.

Dice up 1/2 cup of fresh strawberries and soak in 1/2 cup of Champagne. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Place the unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Add the sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition.

Combine the vanilla extract, vanilla bean seeds and milk in a large liquid measuring cup.

Reduce the speed to low. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then gradually add one-third of the milk mixture, beating until well incorporated. Add another one-third of the flour mixture, followed by one-third of the milk mixture. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk mixture, and beat just until combined.

Gently fold in the diced Champagne-soaked strawberries, just until incorporated.

Scoop batter into baking cups and bake for 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely. If using paper baking cups, peel off all of the paper baking cups from the cupcakes at this time.

Step 2: Making the Champagne Buttercream Frosting

Place the unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Add the confectioner's sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.

Add the vanilla extract, milk, salt and Champagne, and beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Place frosting in a disposable piping bag with a large round tip.

Step 3: Preparing the Strawberries

Slice 24 strawberries lengthwise and soak in 1 cup of Champagne for approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

Step 4: Making the Chocolate Ganache

Fill a medium saucepan with an inch or 2 of water and place over medium-low heat. Place the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a medium glass bowl over the saucepan and melt the chocolate chips. Stir occasionally until the chips are completely melted. Remove the bowl of melted chocolate from the saucepan. Pour the ganache into a plastic squeeze bottle. (If a squeeze bottle is not available, you can drizzle with a spoon.)

Step 5: Assembling Layers in Champagne Flutes

Line up 12 glass Champagne flutes. Insert 1 mini strawberry Champagne cupcake in the bottom of each glass. Next, pipe a swirl of Champagne buttercream frosting on top of each cupcake. Add several slices of Champagne-soaked strawberries, and a drizzle of chocolate ganache. Repeat layers. Finally, place a third mini strawberry Champagne cupcake at the top of each glass, pipe with a final "Georgetown Cupcake signature swirl" of Champagne buttercream frosting, and top with a final drizzle of chocolate ganache.

Step 6: Serving

Insert 1 indoor-safe sparkler candle in the top of each glass. Light the candles at midnight, serve with spoons, and enjoy!

Amy and Steve's New Years Eve Wedding

I was so excited when my friend Amy asked me if I would make the cupcakes for her wedding!  Of course I said yes and that it would be an honor!  The wedding was this past weekend at Romanellos South in Hamburg (just outside of Buffalo) New York. Her wedding colors were deep purple and lime green and she was having about 135 guests.

We decided to go with 150 cupcakes and a traditional cake topper for the bride and groom to cut into. The flavors chosen were Chocolate Candy Cane, a chocolate cupcake topped with a peppermint candy cane buttercream, Chocolate Truffle, a chocolate cupcake filled with a rich chocolate truffle and topped with a white chocolate buttercream, Lemon Snow Ball, a fresh lemon zest cupcake topped with a coconut buttercream and Vanilla Cookies & Cream, a vanilla cupcake filled with cookies & cream topped with a vanilla buttercream.  Vanilla Cookies & Cream was also the cake topper.

Individual fondant flowers were placed on each cupcake.  For future reference, purple is a very hard color to achieve.  For my first batch I used the Wilton gel color violet.  I thought I achieved the perfect purple, until they dried and turned royal blue.  I tried again with my AmeriColor.  These turned out a bit better - not as bright as I wanted them but at least they stayed purple.

Hard to tell but the ribbon and wrappers were a deep purple.

Close up of the cake and fondant flowers.

150 Cupcakes!

Cupcake menu made to match the Candy Bar food labels.

First pic I have taken with one of my creations.

The happy couple!

Cutting the cake!

Amy also had a candy bar for guests.  I helped out by making the custom food labels to match the rest of the wedding decor for each of the candy jars. The candy bar was such a huge hit with the guests - who doesn't love candy?

Purple and green candy for guests to take home.

The Gummi Frogs were my favorite!

Lime green and purple food labels and ribbon were added to the candy containers.