Homemade champagne frosting is a delightfully spiked and sparkly addition to any dessert. Reduce champagne on the stovetop for intensified flavor.
Look up the term “fancy” in the dictionary. I bet you’ll find a photo of this champagne frosting. ๐ This party-perfect buttercream brings a level of luxury to any dessert it touches. It’s creamy and silky soft with a light champagne flavor. Champagne buttercream is perfect for any and all celebrations including:
- Birthdays
- Engagements
- Bridal showers
- Weddings
- Anniversaries
- New Year’s Eve
- Job promotions
Or just a casual night in! Champagne is acceptable any day, right?
How to Make Champagne Frosting
This is a very simple and straightforward American style buttercream. The frosting begins with a vanilla buttercream base: butter + confectionersโ sugar. To that, weโll add champagne and vanilla extract. But we need to reduce down the champagne on the stove before adding it. Why? Reducing the champagne packs an intense amount of flavor into a smaller amount of champagne. We canโt overload our frosting with liquid because that would thin it out. Rather, we will add a small amount of *extreme* champagne flavor.
Do you see this next photo? Left = champagne. Right = reduced and highly concentrated champagne. Look at the color difference! The champagne reduction has a lot more flavor and won’t ruin the texture of the buttercream.
My #1 Tip
Make sure the reduced champagne is cool or room temperatureโNOT hot. If the champagne reduction is hot, it will melt the butter in your frosting, which creates the worst frosting experience your bowl (and eyes) will ever see. Curdled buttercream? Yep.
What Type of Champagne Do I Use in Frosting?
Use any kind of champagne or sparkling wine in this frosting. If you like how it tastes out of the bottle, you’ll like how it tastes in this champagne buttercream frosting. Same goes for my champagne sangriaโuse your favorite. I’ve tried the recipe with dozens of different sparkling wines, including prosecco, and each has been fantastic.
What Tastes Best with Champagne Frosting?
In addition to mimosa cupcakes and wedding cupcakes, it adds a little something extra to:
- Vanilla Cupcakes
- Angel Food Cupcakes
- White Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes
- Lemon Cupcakes
- Confetti Cupcakes
- White Wedding Cupcakes
- Lemon Cake
- Vanilla Cake
- Strawberry Cake
- White Cake
How to Create Intense Champagne Flavor
Reduce champagne on the stovetop before adding to the frosting. Reducing the champagne packs an intense amount of flavor into a smaller amount of liquid. Excess liquid would ruin the frosting.
Champagne Frosting
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 3-4 cups
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Homemade champagne frosting is a delightfully spiked and sparkly addition to any dessert such as vanilla cupcakes or white cake. Reduce champagne on the stovetop for intensified flavor.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (180ml) champagne or sparkling wine (use your favorite)
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups (480g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch salt
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, bring the champagne to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, reduce to medium heat and allow to simmerย until reduced down to 1/4 cup, about 7-10 minutes. Set aside to cool completely. You want it room temperature or cold.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the butter on high speed until completely smooth and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, beating on low at first then increasing to high speed. Once incorporated, add the next cup. Once creamy and combined, beat in 3 Tablespoons of the reduced champagne and the vanilla extract. Taste. Add the remaining reduced champagne if needed, then a pinch of salt if you’d like.
- Frostingย can be made 2 days in advance, covered, and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Freeze frosting for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator, then beat on medium speed with 1-2 Tablespoons of milk to smooth it out before using.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Small Saucepan | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand)
- After you reduce the champagne, make sure it cools to room temperature. Why? Because it will melt the butter in your frosting! Whenever I make champagne frosting, I reduce down the champagne once the cake or cupcakes come out of the oven. That way the champagne can cool down as the cake cools down.
- This recipe is enough to frostย 14-15 cupcakes, 32-36 mini cupcakes, or one 2 layer cake.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Can I use cream cheese instead of butter?
Hi Anna, we don’t recommend swapping all of the butter with cream cheese, but you can try swapping some of the butter with cream cheese. It may take a bit of tinkering to get your desired consistency. Let us know if you do any experimenting!
I reduced my champagne a little too much. Would it be better to just add unreduced champagne to the mixture to bring it to the right amount? Or should I reduce some more champagne and add it?
Hi Kristin, for best flavor, we’d reduce more champagne until you have 1/4 total reduced champagne for the frosting.
Would this recipe make enough to ice your strawberry cake and would I be able to add food colouring to this? I am making an 80s themed birthday cake and love the idea of a strawberry cake with pink champagne buttercream and multiple other crazy 80s colours!
Hi Holly, this recipe yields enough for 1, 2 layer cake. You can absolutely color it with gel food coloring. Hope it’s a hit!
Hi!
I am having trouble with this buttercream. Both times that I have made this it looks great but then I put it in the fridge overnight to use the next day and when I bring it to room temp to use, it gets all curdled. What is happening????? I did everything according to the recipe.
Hi Delaney, have you tried beating on medium speed again with 1-2 Tablespoons of milk to smooth it out? That may help.
You may have overbeaten your buttercream or your butter wasn’t all at the same temperature
Hi! If using this as a filling for the macaron, do you cut this recipe in half
Yes, we’d recommend a half batch for filing macarons. Enjoy!
Your recipe inspired me to use on a wedding cake for a family member. I followed your recipe exactly and to me, with great disappointment, I was expecting a wow flavor. Unfortunately, it was not the wow factor I imagined. Since I’ve never actually tried Champagne buttercream before, perhaps that could have made a difference for me. Thank you for sharing, but for those expecting an over the top buttercream like it’s name, you may be disappointed. For the expense and the time involved, I probably would not do this again on a large scale. If requested, maybe a small scale.
Hiya
Sally would i be able to make this but more like your white chocolate buttercream?
Hi Karen, Iโm sure this reduced champagne trick could work with Swiss Meringue Buttercream! Let us know if you try it.