I was able to combine two of my favorite things: cupcakes and mimosas!

This idea all started because I recently heard of a new type of pink champagne I wanted to try and I’ve also been meaning to try my hand at making champagne cupcakes.  Then I decided that I may as well go that extra step and add some delicious orange juice flavor as well to make my favorite drink, the mimosa!

I have seen some champagne cupcake pictures floating around with little edible pearls and I really liked the idea of how they represent the bubbly nature of champagne, but I also wanted to add something more to the final appearance.  I decided upon white and pink chocolate designs.

With my mental picture of the finished product complete I went off to find my supplies.  I really did enjoy shopping around for the perfect cupcake liners and when I was looking at liners I found some cupcake wraps that I thought would tie my whole idea together.  I also found out they offer several different colors of edible pearls and got some great ideas for future projects!  (I hate clothes and grocery shopping but somehow love shopping for baking supplies!)

A picture of some of my supplies and ingredients:

Anyway, on to the important part!

I used a white cupcake mix, any brand will do, or make your own batter from scratch if you like.  I substituted the water in the recipe for pink champagne and left the other ingredient amounts as they were.  Be aware that when you add the champagne to the cake batter it will bubble up.  It works best to add the champagne to the batter in small amounts while mixing.  I added pink food dye to give the cupcakes a bright pink color.  I also made another batch that were a lighter pink and found I liked the how the darker pink color looked with the orange frosting.

Fill your cupcake liners as you would normally, and bake for the normal recommended time.  Your cupcakes will be done when the tops spring back when you touch them lightly.

Time to make some chocolate designs!

The easiest way to have all your designs look consistant is to make a template on a piece of paper in pencil and then darken it with a black marker.  Remember when coming up with your design it is better to draw thicker lines so that the designs will hold up better.  Thin lines will break very easily!  I decided to go with a large white ‘curl’ and a smaller pink ‘curl’.

I find the easiest way to work with chocolate is to put some of the chocolate in a disposable pastry bag  and seal with a rubber band.  Pop it into the microwave and heat in 30 second intervals until it is melted.

Take a cookie sheet or large cutting board and lay a piece of waxed paper on top with your template underneath.  As you pipe out the chocolate follow your template.  When you are ready to make another, slide your template under the waxed paper or parchment paper to a new spot and repeat!  When you are done place your chocolate designs in the fridge to harden.

I drew both my large and small template on the same piece of paper for my own convenience.  Save your template for when you want to make these cupcakes again!

While you are waiting for your chocolate designs to set up, mix up the orange juice buttercream:

1/2 cup room temperature butter

4 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup orange juice

orange food dye

Whip the butter for a minute on medium speed, add in the sugar and orange juice alternately until the mixture is smooth.  Whip your icing at medium speed for two minutes.  If you find your frosting too thin add more confectioners sugar.  If its too thick, add more orange juice.  Add enough of the food dye to make the buttercream a medium shade of orange.

This was the first time I used orange juice in my buttercream recipe and wasn’t quite sure how it would turn out.  I was pleasantly surprised to find it had a great taste!  The orange flavor in the buttercream really brings out the flavor of the cupcake and makes for a fantastic flavor combination.

I learned that it is much easier to put the cupcake wrap on before icing the cupcake, but you may decide to do it differently.

The edible pearls work best when placed on the cupcake right after it has been frosted.  If you wait too long they will roll off the dried buttercream!  I iced five cupcakes, went back to put the pearls on then repeated the process in this manner.

When all the cupcakes are iced pull the chocolate designs out of the fridge.  I decided to add pearlize dust on my designs to give them a little shimmer.  You may want to experiment with how your designs will lay on top of your cupcake before you move on.  It’s much easier to rearrange one cupcake rather than several!

You may choose to add edible glitter to the tops of your cupcakes.  I went without since I used the pearlize dust.

I strongly recommend refrigerating these cupcakes!  Not only will it ‘chill’ your mimosa cupcake it will help keep those chocolate designs in place.

I had a blast making these cupcakes, and everyone really loved the flavor of the orange juice buttercream!

To make your guests feel really special serve them their cupcake on a plate with a glass of pink champagne mimosa!

If you don’t like orange juice you can omit it from the buttercream recipe and substitute with pink champagne and make the frosting a lighter pink than your cupcake.