Happy New Year!

Welcome to The Pink Mixer Project! I've been thinking about doing a food blog for some time now, and decided the new year was the perfect timing. My goal here is to chronicle what happens in our kitchen- I'm a baked goods loving vegetarian, while my husband is a grill loving carnivore. In order for recipes to succeed in my kitchen they need to be tasty! 

To kick off the new year, I made these pink champagne cupcakes. These are delish- light and bubbly without being overwhelmingly sweet. Enjoy!

Pink Champagne Cupcakes 

Ingredients

3/4 to 1 cup pink champagne (we used the new Cupcake Vineyards version) 

1 cup very finely chopped strawberries 

2/3 cup room temp. butter 

1 1/2 cups sugar 

2 3/4 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder 

1 tsp salt

6 egg whites at room temp 

Directions

Oven to 350. C

Cream together the butter and sugar. In a separate bowl, mix or sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. 

Slowly alternate adding the dry ingredients and champagne to the creamed butter/sugar mix. So you should- add dry ingredients, stir, add champagne, stir. Repeat. 

Scatter the strawberries evenly across the top of the batter.  Because they are chopped very small, it should be easy to incorporate them into the batter by using 2 or 3 long strokes. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the room temperature egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes or so.  The finished product should be a gorgeous white fluff that holds a point when you remove the beater. 

Fold 1/3 to 1/2 of the egg whites into the batter until incorporated. Slowly fold in the remaining egg whites until well blended. 

Fill cake liners with the batter and bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Pink Champagne Frosting 

Ingredients

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup room temp butter

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

1  to 1 1/2 tbl milk

a dash of champagne 

Optional: a dash of red food coloring paste to give a pretty pink color. 

Directions

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the powdered sugar and butter together. Slowly add vanilla and mix. Alternate slowly adding milk and champagne until desired consistency. Increase mixer speed to medium for 1 to 2 minutes or until mix is smooth. 

Frost cooled cupcakes using either a frosting knife or pastry bag and top with pretty sugar crystals. 

Enjoy!