Make “Happy Hour” Cupcakes Using Wine or Beer!

February 1, 2012 | by Jocie (email) |

If you follow us on Facebook, you might have seen a small preview of Lucy’s One Year “Happy Hour” Celebration. (My longer post on the whole party is coming soon!) In keeping with the theme, I made cupcakes with Blue Moon Beer and Red Diamond Merlot for the adults. About a year ago, I saw a recipe for Boxed Wine Cupcakes, and then more recently I saw a from-scratch Recipe for Blue Moon cupcakes on Pinterest. I had to modify these recipes a bit to make them work for me, but they still turned out great!

I’m going to give you my versions of those recipes next. But first, check out this beautiful picture taken by my friend, Ruth, of the alcohol-free cupcakes for the birthday girl and her friends, with a one year cupcake topper from our local Hobby Lobby! Aren’t they cute?

While I appreciate homemade baked goods, I always prefer to use a box mix when possible. Since the Blue Moon Cupcakes recipes I found online were from scratch, I adapted the box mix recipes to include beer.  Both the Blue Moon and Chocolate Merlot cupcakes turned out AMAZING and were so simple to make!

Chocolate Merlot Cupcakes Recipe

Batter:

• 1 box Devil’s food cake mix
• 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 cup Merlot wine
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup  semisweet chocolate chips

Frosting:

• 6 cups powdered sugar
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup unsweetened baking cocoa
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup Merlot wine
• 1 tsp vanilla

Baking Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for dark or nonstick pan). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. Make cake batter as directed on box, using cake mix, water, 3/4 cup wine, oil and eggs. Stir in chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about ½ full).
2. Bake 20 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
3. In large bowl, beat powdered sugar, butter, cocoa and salt with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Beat in ½ cup wine. If frosting is too thick, beat in more wine a few drops at a time.
4. Frost cupcakes (see my tips below). Garnish with chocolate curls.

When you finish, they’ll look like this:

Blue Moon Cupcakes Recipe

Batter:

• 1 Yellow Box Mix
• 3/4 blue moon
• 1/2 c water
• 1/2 tsp. Orange zest
• 1/2 c. oil
• 3 eggs

Icing:

• 6 cups icing
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup Blue Moon beer
• 3 tsp Orange Juice

Baking Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for dark or nonstick pan). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. Make cake batter as directed on box, using cake mix, water, ½ cup Blue Moon, orange zest, oil and eggs. Add more or less orange zest, depending on how much orange flavor you desire.  Beware, if you like the beer taste, the orange zest overpowers the beer.  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about ½ full).
2. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely.
3. In large bowl, beat powdered sugar, butter, and orange juice with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Slowly beat in ½ cup beer. If frosting is too thick, beat in more beer a few drops at a time. If too runny, add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time. For more beer flavor, do not add orange juice.
4. Frost cupcakes.

Frosting & Decorating the Cupcakes

I like to use a cake decorating bag and designer tips to frost cupcakes.  The icing will need to be slightly thicker than if you were icing the cupcakes using a knife.  When you insert a knife into the icing, it should form a stiff peak when you remove the knife. That’s how you know it’s the right consistency.

Use the largest tips available – my favorite is the star-like shaped tip, but the crescent or circle tip can also make a pretty design.  If you don’t have a cake decorating set, you can also put icing in a ziploc bag and cut off one corner to use instead of the decorating bag.

Top with sprinkles, candies, or candles!