Prosecco Cupcakes!

These elegant Boozy Prosecco Cupcakes combine a light, fluffy sponge with a sweet prosecco-infused drizzle and a rich, velvety buttercream frosting. Topped with prosecco-soaked raspberries and decadent truffles, they take 20 minutes to prep and just 18 minutes to bake, making them the perfect effortless treat for any party.

Notes from The Patisserie

Whether it’s the start of a new year or you’re just hosting a weekend gathering, cupcakes are the ultimate crowd-pleaser. You don’t have to worry about slicing a giant cake, you can just hand them out as you go. If you find yourself with leftover bottles after a big party, this is the absolute best way to use them up. It’s elegant, fun, and completely delicious.

Baking with your favourite sparkling wine is a brilliant way to turn a simple cupcake into something worthy of a big celebration. The trick to getting that distinct, bubbly flavour entirely through the bake without altering the texture of the cake is to use a concentrated syrup. Pouring a homemade prosecco drizzle directly over the cupcakes ensures every single bite is incredibly moist and flavourful.

Prosecco cupcakes

To make sure the prosecco flavour runs all the way through each cupcake, you want to apply your drizzle the exact moment the tin comes out of the oven. While the cupcakes are piping hot, their structure is open and ready to pull the syrup deep down into the crumb. To get the perfect texture in your sponge I use:

• Butter – unsalted block butter at room temperature is best but baking spread will work
• Sugar – caster sugar provides that golden texture and sweetness throughout the sponge
• Flour – self raising flour lifts your sponge and creates beautiful crumb that will absorb the liquid later
• Eggs – as usual I use medium eggs
• Prosecco flavouring – this is completely optional and can be swapped for vanilla but it will just enhance that flavour one step further

Customising your sparkle

I know I will get jokes about how the prosecco will never make it to the cupcakes, but when you’ve just had a New Years party and are now sick of the sight of it, you won’t have an issue putting it in some cupcakes. Honestly, I overbought, and had some left as expected… but wow. 

What Prosecco you use doesn’t really matter – it’s not the sort of bake where you will really get a strong flavour of the type of prosecco, more just a general flavour – so don’t worry about using the most expensive on this.

You can swap it to a rose prosecco for example, but again, the flavour might not be so prominent to be able to tell which one it is. Also, you can easily swap for Champagne or any sparkling wine! Either way, it’s damn delicious!

Block butter for the buttercream

Adding a liquid drizzle straight into frosting is a fantastic way to impart flavour, but it requires a very stable base. Traditional unsalted block butter contains the perfect balance of fats to lock in that extra liquid. If you try to swap it out for baking spread or a dairy-free alternative, the mixture will quickly break down, leaving you with a sloppy, un-pipeable frosting.

FAQs

Storage and freezing

Because the sweet prosecco drizzle locks in so much incredible moisture, these cupcakes will stay beautifully soft and fresh for up to 3 days when stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Keep them out of the fridge to stop the sponges from drying out.

If you want to bake ahead, you can freeze the un-iced, drizzled cupcakes. Wrap them carefully or place them in a sturdy container and freeze for up to 3 months. Simply let them thaw on your counter overnight before whipping up a fresh batch of frosting to decorate.

Related recipes

I’ve made a champagne cheesecake before (which you can obviously use prosecco for instead), and a raspberry & Prosecco trifle – but never a real “bake”! I thought cupcakes would be cute – and I just love how they turned out.