Mimosa Cupcakes!

Is there anything more festive than a champagne cupcake? I'm thinking a mimosa cupcake!! With blood oranges! And starfruit garnish! Ahh!! No more words. Just cupcakes! 

Cupcake (adapted from Please Cupcake):

- 1 tsp orange zest

- juice of 1 orange (about 2tbsp)

- 1 cup of champagne or sparkling wine

- 1 1/2 cups of flour

- 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

- 1 cup sugar

- 3 egg whites

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/4 tsp salt

Filling (adapted from arpam at Group Recipes):

- 12 oz frozen raspberries

- 1 1/3 cups water

- 1 1/4 cups sugar

- 1 tsp orange zest

- 2 tbsp orange juice (approx juice from one blood orange)

- 5-6 tbsp of corn starch dissolved in 1/2 cup of water (measure out water then add starch)

Buttercream (adapted from The Curvy Carrot):

- 3-4 cups of powdered sugar

- 1 cup unsalted butter

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 4-5 tbsp champagne

Here's how to cupcake!

Blend up the butter and sugar. If you're like me and never leave time to let the butter warm up to room temperature, you can try this handy little trick. Microwave your stick of butter for four seconds on each side (so four times) and you will have perfectly melted butter! 

Is there anything more wonderful than creamed butter and sugar?? Add the vanilla extract and give it a little whirl. While you're trying not to eat this, mix your dry ingredients and give it a little whisk. 

Now get the rest of your wet ready. Pop the bubbly and measure out one cup. Make sure you're ready for the bubbles to go crazy and overflow! 

I used blood oranges both for my zest and juice.  Zest first, juice second. 

Aren't they just beautiful?

Add half of your dry. Then add the wet (I added about half, mixed and then added the second half) and then finish with the other half of the dry. I added the little bits of orange on the juicer to the cupcakes. 

Fill the liners up 3/4ths of the way and bake for 20 minutes at 350f. 

While they are baking, start making your filling. Take another orange, zest about 1 tsp and then juice it. Add this to a sauce pan with 12 oz of frozen raspberries. To this add 1 1/4th cups of sugar and 1 1/3 cups of water. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. You'll know when it's ready because the raspberries will start to fall apart. 

Take your cupcakes out when finished and place somewhere to cool. 

Once your filling timer has gone off, it should look a bit like this. Strain it with a mesh strainer. You may have patients to let it cool a bit first but I didn't. This all went fine until I lost my spoon in the boiling liquid.. 

Make sure you push down on the berries to push out any remaining moisture. Don't use your hand if it's just off the boil! 

This is what it should look for when it's strained. Now measure out your 1/2 cup of water and add the 5 tbsp of corn starch to the mixture. It'll turn this pretty color.  Boil for another five minutes. You'll probably need to stir constantly (especially if you didn't let it cool). It will really thicken in this step. Once you finish the short boil, remove from heat. Set aside to fully cool. 

I bought some starfruit the other day and decided to use it for garnish. 

Once your filling is cool, you can begin filling. This is where it really got interesting for me... I couldn't find my cupcake corer so I decided to try to pipe it. It was a serious epic failure. It wasn't thick enough but I didn't see another option so I just went for it.  If this is your only option, here's what I did (maybe you can learn from it.. or maybe just laugh). I filled the piping bag in a cup so the filling wouldn't end up all over the floor. I moved quickly and held my finger on the end of the piping tip until right above the cupcake. Then stabbed the cupcake and gave the bag a squeeze. I let a little over flow. As I moved from cupcake to cupcake, I held a finger over the tip of the piping bag.  

Now for the buttercream:

This is super easy. Cream the butter and slowly add the sugar. Then add the champagne and vanilla. Mix to incorporate. I piped the frosting on, but a butter knife would do just fine! 

Here's the final product!! At first I tried to stand the starfruit up but it was too heavy for my buttercream. 

So I laid them down. 

These celebration cupcakes are on their way to a birthday girl tomorrow!