Champagne Mimosa Cupcakes

I’ve been experimenting with different ways to make simple cupcakes from a boxed mix turn into something a little more original and upscale. With a family wedding coming up in March, the bride and groom want a cupcake wedding cake, so they can have lots of creative cake varieties. Here’s one I tried, “Champagne Mimosa Cupcakes.”

The Plan

Making a cupcake wedding cake ourselves is no small task. We’ll have to bake and decorate, store and transport the cupcakes. Then we’ll need acquire a cupcake stand and find time to set up the cake before the wedding. When will do all these things? Small details never stopped this family. The bride and groom are inventive and want to come up with some unique cupcakes. I think it’s under control.

We’re going to rent a 4 tier-cupcake stand from a local bakery — we’ll only use this once, so why purchase it? The bakery will bake a two-layer cake for the top. This bakery makes a delicious almond wedding cake that is unrivaled locally in Baton Rouge. So guests will have a chance to sample their cake. Here’s one of Ambrosia Bakery’s cakes. (Why aren’t we using this one?)

The bakery will box up the cupcake stand and cake layers for our 1-hour drive to New Orleans. There, a family member or members will assemble everything before the wedding. We were fortunate to find a bakery so willing to work with us. Here’s the cake stand with lots of room for cupcakes on the 3 tiers and around the bottom.

One of the groom’s cousins is very creative. She is in charge of designing and acquiring all of the decorations for the tables and she plans to add fresh flowers around the cupcakes. The grandmother is making a cake topper out of marzipan. Sounds easy? We’ll see. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of photos to share on this blog.

Cupcakes

Since we’re baking lots and lots of cupcakes, I think that easy might be wise. So I started with a boxed cake mix and experimented with making champagne mimosa cupcakes. Oranges that my neighbor shared from his orange tree gave the mimosa flavor and 7-Up soft drink made the “champagne”. Since the color of the mimosa cake can be yellow, I used whole eggs rather than egg whites. I also made this with a yellow cake mix. This was successful, too.

The cupcakes turned out soft and moist with a hint of orange flavor and some of the almond flavor of the cupcake mix.

I made a buttercream icing and simple decorations for this trial. The trick to making icing is to get the consistency thin enough to spread, but not too thin — it needs to hold a shape. Use a knife or pastry tube and flower tip to ice the cupcakes. Add sprinkles before the icing hardens.I’ll need to work on this skill. I used vanilla extract, orange extract and grated orange peel to give an orange flavor to the icing. It made a delicious cupcake – but there are other kinds to try, too.

Champagne Mimosa Cupcakes

Servings: 24 cupcakes
Time: 1 hour plus time to cook then ice the cupcakes
Difficulty: easy
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Cupcakes:

1-16.25 oz box Better Crocker Super Moist White cake mix
3/4 cup 7-Up soft drink or ginger ale
1/2 cup orange juice
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 Tbsp grated orange peel

Buttercream Icing

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
6 cups powdered sugar (more as needed)
4 Tbsp 7-Up coke or ginger ale
2-6 Tbsp orange juice (additional orange juice as needed)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp orange extract
1 Tbsp grated orange peel
White glitter or sprinkles

Method and Steps:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Using standard size muffin tins, line with white cupcake liners.
Add cake mix to large bowl of electric mixer. Then add 7-Up or ginger ale, orange juice, vegetable oil and eggs.
Mix on low speed of mixer, scraping sides of bowl. Then increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes.
Turn off mixer, and sprinkle orange peel over top. Gently fold in by hand.
With a small measuring cup (1/4 cup), fill cup cake liners 1/2 full, distributing evenly among cup cakes.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until the top springs back. Don’t over bake.
Remove from oven and cool on wire rack until room temperature.

For Icing:

Add softened butter or margarine to a large bowl of electric mixer. Beat until creamy and soft.
Add confectioners sugar, 7-Up, 2 Tbsp orange juice, vanilla extract, orange extract and orange peel.
Beat until light and fluffy. If too stiff, add 1 tsp orange juice at a time. If too thin, add 1 Tbsp powdered sugar at a time.
Spoon icing into a decorator bag fitted with a flower tip. Pipe onto cupcakes. Alternately, spread icing on with knife
Immediately sprinkle with glitter before the icing hardens.