New Year's Eve: Prosecco Cupcakes

For New Years Eve, I wanted to make a festive dessert that celebrated the holiday. Clearly, that meant Prosecco cupcakes.

As a fan of the Food Network show Cupcake Wars, I had seen the bakers make many Champagne cupcakes in the competition. However, I personally prefer Champagne's sweeter, Italian cousin– Prosecco.

Cupcake Vineyards produces quality wines at great prices. Unlike many other American-based wine manufacturers, they correctly label their sparkling wine based on the region from which the grapes were cultivated. Unfortunately, many American winemakers label their sparkling wines as Champagne, when in fact the grapes were not from the Champagne region in France.

But I digress... The Cupcake Prosecco was suited perfectly for my baking needs. And the name was quite apropos for the situation!

The result: perfectly fluffy cupcakes with just a hint of the grape-y Prosecco. Needless to say, they were a huge hit at the party!


P.S.– A word on the frosting: I hand-piped the frosting using a large Ziploc bag and a piping tip left over from my days as a cake decorator. The steps are really simple:

1. Cut a hole in the bottom corner of the Ziploc bag that's just large enough for the piping tip
2. Stick the piping tip in THEN fill the bag with frosting
3. Go ahead and pipe!