Champagne Cupcakes with Vegan Buttercream Icing Recipe

My sister made me the BEST birthday present – a Doctor Who fabric apron! I figured the best way to break it in is bake cupcakes.

But not just any cupcakes - let’s make champagne cupcakes!

With a diary food allergy most baked goods are off limits unless I make them, just like this recipe - dairy free (you can make it vegan by swapping out the eggs for your favorite vegan egg substitute plant based friends.)

Using the power of my new apron (OK, actually it was after conducting several kitchen experiments but my clothes stayed icing free so yay apron!)  I made a fantastic dairy free buttercream icing recipe that tastes so good to my non food allergy friends, I got this little message from one of the Thanksgiving guests:

“Seriously, these cupcakes are making my lonely Thanksgiving a wonderful lovely holiday… but these treats meet and exceed how awesome anything dessert would be.”

Who wants cupcakes?

How to Make Champagne Cupcakes

 

I suggest you use a sweet sparkling wine instead of something dry. You will want something on the sweet side because that is what will flavor the cupcake when the alcohol bakes out of the cupcake batter in the oven.

This recipe couldn’t be easier. While I normally bake from scratch, I haven’t had much success in making champagne cupcakes that way. And trust me, I tried several times. I finally gave up and bought a white cake mix and they came out perfectly!


All you need to do is replace the water in a box mix of white cupcakes with champagne, add the rest of the ingredients (mine took egg whites and oil), pour into cupcake liners (or butter and flour pan if you want to make them Zero Waste,) bake per the directions on the box and Boom! You just made champagne cupcakes!

How to Make Dairy Free Buttercream Icing Recipe

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I can’t tell you how much I missed eating buttercream frosting until I frosted my first cupcake with this recipe. Butter cream icing doesn’t harden like royal icing which can make it slightly messy to ice something small like a cupcake with a icing spatula.


But I have mega simple, easy, and less messy workaround that also kicks the presentation up a notch with little to no extra effort – use a Cupcake decorating set. (<-- big ol' affiliate links in this post. Throw me a bone and use it for your shopping, will ya? It helps me keep my household running and it is at no additional cost to you. Thanks!)

Pop a star tip in an icing bag, use a spatula to scoop the icing from the bowl and into the bag, fold the top edge over, and ice the cupcake by making a series of graduated circles with the star tip until the reach the center of the cupcake. Don’t worry if your piped icing circles don’t match up perfectly or are a little wonky, it just proves you made them by hand with love and didn’t cheat and by them from a bakery.

I upped the wow factor, again the lazy way, by blinging out the icing with gold pearilized sugar sprinkles on top. Why? Because as another guest commented,’'Because it’s Lisa!”

I think that’s a compliment.

You will need:

3 Cups of powdered sugar

1/3 Cup of vegan butter

1 1/2 Teaspoons of vanilla extract - Use the real stuff. It really makes a difference!

2 Tablespoons of water (or champagne if you like)

Step by Step How to Make It:

1. Use an electric mixer to thoroughly combine the powdered sugar, dairy free butter and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl.

2. Slowly add the liquid to mixture until the icing is a creamy, yet firm texture.

Tip: If you accidentally add too much liquid that makes the icing too runny, add a tiny bit of powdered sugar until you get the proper consistency.

3. Ice your cupcakes.

4. Eat. Enjoy. Repeat!

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