Red Wine Sangria Cupcakes

Hello friends, for brief while I thought I would launch a new blog where I would investigate "Can it Cupcake?" An exploration of turning things that are not traditionally in cupcake form, into cupcakes! The idea has legs, but I'm not finding the time to maintain two blogs! So I'm going to merge it back into my baking blog here! Sorry for recycling posts! In the end it will make this blog more exciting with more inspiration!

So in case you missed it on Can it Cupcake, here is the Red Wine Sangria post!

I made these cupcakes in honor of Cinco de Mayo. I've seen a lot of margarita cupcakes or Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes, but I hadn't seen sangria cupcakes! These are chocolate red wine cupcakes with a pineapple ring layer, triple sec orange frosting and topped with lemon lime zest!



Fancy! But for as fancy as these sound I think they could have come out better. I don't recommend halfing the chocolate red wine cupcake recipe, it requires weird measurements to half and they came out kind of dense. The pineapple on the bottom could have also cause that, I was a bit worried it may be too juicy. But the frosting is amazing!

So here is the recipe with full measurements that should yield around 24 regular sized cupcakes!

Red Wine Sangria Cupcakes

For the cupcakes
Adapted from We Are Not Martha

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 oz. chocolate chips
1/2 cup boiling water
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup red wine (I used a Spanish cabernet sauvignon, for no particular reason other than it was a Spanish red wine and I liked the bottle)
3 cans sliced pineapple rings (my can had 10 rings)

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake pans with wrappers
2. Drain the pineapple slices, and cut as pictured below then place in the bottom of each wrapper
   
3. In a heatproof bowl combine cocoa powder and chocolate chips and pour in the boiling water. Quickly mix to combine and until chips are melted
4. In a stand mixer or large bowl using a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together.
5. Then beat in each egg one at a time until well combined.
   
6. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
   
7. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until combined.
8. Alternate adding the chocolate mixture and wine until all is well combined.
9. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups right over the pineapple
10. Bake for about 20 minutes until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean
11. Cool in pan on wire rack for 5 - 10 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completly
    

For the Triple Sec orange liqueur buttercream frosting

1 package powdered sugar (16 ounces)
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 tablespoons Triple sec
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon orange extract

1. Cream the butter in a mixer
2. Add all other ingredients and start mixing on slow, increasing speed as ingredients begin to blend together
3. Use more or less milk as necessary to achieve desired consistency

Assembly!

1. Frost cupcakes once completely cool.
2. Combine 1 tablespoon lemon zest, and 1 tablespoon lime zest and mix together
3. Sprinkle zest over frosting and you have sangria cupcakes!