That title sounds like I have vowed to make a documentary like ‘That Sugar Film’ or ‘Supersize Me’. Fear not, as much as I love them together or separately I don’t think I could handle a year of nothing but Champagne and chips.
Champagne and Chips turns one today. And what a year it has been. I have been very privileged to receive so much support from Nuffnang (my blogging agency), local PR companies, and other bloggers. This little blog is growing and finding its place in the world. 🙂
A few weeks back I attended Eat Drink Blog in Canberra, a conference for Aussie food and drink bloggers. It was a wonderful experience and I will write more about it soon – something of a life changing weekend for me. I was also completely blown away to receive one of the writing prizes, in the recipe writing category, for my Sticky Date Cake with Caramel Custard and Cream Cheese Frosting.
Part of my prize was a huge stash of bakeware from Bakers Secret. I’m taking this as a message from the universe that I need to bake more often.
Now really I should have been doing some kind of recipe involving Champagne and Chips, and I have a few ideas, but moscato with its fruity sweetness just screams BAKE WITH ME. So I obeyed.
Macabella Moscato Cupcakes
Have you ever seen those cupcake recipes involving a can of soft drink? Well, this is the adult version. If you aren’t familiar with moscato, it is a low alcohol, sweet, fruity wine made from the muscat grape. It smells like musk and rose petals. The best ones come from Asti DOCG in Italy, but there are plenty of affordable examples around. For this recipe use a sparkling moscato, the bubbles help the cupcakes rise and be light and fluffy.
There is a little extra twist here – as you bite in your mouth fills with with Macabella – chocolate macadamia spread*. The cupcakes are topped with a super fluffy moscato buttercream frosting, with a dash of rosewater to boost those lovely aromas.
Happy Birthday Champagne and Chips.
Exciting things to come my dears 🙂
PS. A word on the alcohol content: There is a total of 420ml of moscato in these cupcakes. The moscato I used – Angas Premium Moscato – has an alcohol by volume of 8.5%. This means there was a total of about 36 grams of alcohol in this recipe (roughly 3.5 standard drinks) or 2.5 grams of alcohol per cupcake, about a quarter of a standard drink assuming that non of the alcohol evaporated during baking. It’s safe to say that probably 1 gram did evaporate during cooking, so these cakes contain about 1.5 grams of alcohol. Fairly insignificant if your child eats one, unlikely to be an issue for a pregnant woman, you could eat 6 and still safely drive a car, however it might be significant for people that avoid alcohol for religious or moral reasons.
*You can use any chocolate spread you like, but I have recently become a fan of Macabella, not only because it is macadamia and chocolate (how can you go wrong?!?) but because it contains UTZ certified cocoa and Certified Sustainable Palm Oil. There is no sponsorship involved here, I just think that when you can chose a delicious chocolate spread that is friendly to all involved, it is a nice choice to make.
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 1/4 tsp salt (optional)
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 egg whites
- 2 cups self-raising flour
- 1 1/2 cups sparkling moscato
- 250g unsalted butter, softened
- 500g icing sugar (about 3 1/2 cups)
- 3 Tbsp moscato
- 1/2 tsp rosewater
- About 1/2 a cup of chocolate spread
- Preheat oven to 180C/375F
- Line a cupcake tin with wrappers
- Beat butter, salt and sugar together until thick and pale.
- Add whole egg to mixture and beat until combined
- Whisk egg whiles in a separate bowl until soft peaks form
- To the butter mixture, add 1/4 of the flour and 1/4 of the moscato and mix until just combined. Scrape down the bowl and repeat until all the flour and moscato has been added and the mixture is just combined. Do not overbeat.
- Gently fold through egg whites, keeping as much air in the mixture as possible.
- Fill cupcake wrappers to 3/4 full. The cakes will rise quite a lot.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Allow to cool completely.
- Beat butter and half the icing sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add remaining icing sugar.
- Add moscato, rosewater and food colouring and beat until think and light. If the mixture is too thin to pipe, add 1 tablespoon of icing sugar at a time, beating between additions until desired consistency is reached.
- Using a small knife, cut a cone-shaped hole from the top of each cake.
- Place about half a tablespoon of chocolate spread in each hole, making sure it is no higher than the top of the cake.
- Spoon buttercream into an icing bag and pipe frosting onto the top of each cake.
- I like to use cake flour, a lower protein alternative. You can make your own by measuring a cup of self raising flour, removing two tablespoons of flour and replacing with cornflour, then sift well.
- To keep the cake light and fluffy, measure all the ingredients out first so you can make the mixture quickly
Happy Blogiversary! I think you’ve done amazing things in the last year and I can’t wait to see how far you go in the next, congratulations lovely! Oh and another yummilicious sounding recipe here! X
Oh m freakin gee you need to bring me one o them!
Congrats on the bloggyversary x
What cute cupcakes. Congrats to one year of champagne and chips and cheers to the next year. xxx
Hooray! Happy Birthday to your lovely blog! Loving these gorgeous cupcakes and that filling – YUM!
Thank you, now I just need to work out how to make them look as stunning as your photos.
Huzzah! One year in – Many happy returns! Oh boy, do I need to find some Macabella… Here’s to many more cheers to come xx
You most certainly need to find Macabella. Seek it out! (Coles Supermarkets in Vic)
Happy anniversary lovely lady! You have done SO much in 12 months. WOW!!! Love this beautiful little space you’ve created here and I can’t wait to see what’s in store next. And these cupcakes… OMG divine! Thanks for linking up with our Fabulous Foodie Fridays party xx
Aww shucks, thank you Lucy. I do like this little space and really look forward to the day i have more time to work on it.
Happy 1st Blogaversary – here’s to many, many more! I hope one is fun! Moscato is my absolute favourite drink and I always have a bottle on standby! I am totally going to give these a go because cupcakes PLUS Moscato, gee, I really can’t think of anything better!
Thank you lovely, do tag me if you give them a go. i was pretty excited about all the grape pinkness of them 🙂
These cupcakes sound amazing but more impressive is your blogaversary! Such a beautiful and well-established blog after only a year. Mine is coming up in the spring so I know what a milestone this is for you. Congratulations and here’s to many more years!
Awww shucks, thanks Luca. Are you not even a whole year in? That’s crazy, i thought you had been writing for ages. All the lovely stuff you just said…back at ya 🙂
Happy birthday Champagne and Chips! It’s so wonderful that your blog is growing so amazingly – you’ve put so much hard work in and it’s lovely that it is taking off. Congratulations on winning the writing prize too! What a first year it has been! I can see a batch of these cupcakes coming to my next girl’s night for sure!
Thank you Amy…ditto to everything above for your own gorgeous blog.