Confetti Cupcakes with Champagne Custard

When you have a reason to celebrate, these Confetti Cupcakes with Champagne Custard are the perfect celebratory treat! The cake is packed with sprinkles, filled with a delicious champagne custard, and topped with a vanilla champagne buttercream.

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🧁 How to make confetti cupcakes
• 🍾 How to make champagne custard
• 🥣 How to make vanilla champagne buttercream
• 👩‍🍳 Assembling the cupcakes
• ⏲️ How to store
• 🎉 More party cupcake recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

This year, I resolve to make more cupcakes. And decorate more cupcakes. And eat more cupcakes. And those are my new year's resolutions.

I always say I want to be a better cake decorator, but I also realize that I'll probably never reach expert levels of cake decorating. My style is more sweet and simple (and sprinkle-y) and I'm OK with that.

Of course, I'm always trying to improve my decorating skills, but baking a delicious cupcake that looks nice is my goal first and foremost. And the best way to do that is to just keep practicing.

So, I'll be baking a lot of cupcakes this year. And instead of resolving to get better at anything, I'm just resolving to make and eat more cake. Are you with me?

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

I first made these confetti cupcakes with champagne custard in 2011 and over the years, I've improved the recipe quite a bit, which is why I'm updating this post.

The fun cupcakes have celebration written all over them and are perfect for serving during any birthday celebration or special occasion.

And most importantly, they're easy to make, look fancy without being hard, and are so tasty!

🗒 Ingredients

There are three components to these cupcakes, but they're all made with pretty simple ingredients. Here are the components:

• Confetti cupcakes
• Champagne custard filling
• Vanilla champagne buttercream

And here's what you need for each of the components (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

Confetti Cupcakes:

• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Unsalted butter
• Granulated sugar
• Large eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Whole milk

Champagne Custard:

• Large egg yolks
• Granulated sugar
• Champagne
• Cornstarch

Vanilla Champagne Buttercream:

• Unsalted butter
• Confectioners' sugar
• Salt
• Champagne
• Vanilla extract

🧁 How to make confetti cupcakes

These confetti cupcakes are really just moist vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles baked in. Kind of like funfetti cake.

Start by preheating oven to 350 degrees and lining a cupcake tin with 12 papers.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set flour mixture aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add eggs in one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla extract.

With mixer on low speed, beat in dry ingredients in 2 additions, alternating with the milk. Mix in each addition until just incorporated. Gently fold in rainbow sprinkles.

Fill cupcake liners in muffin pan about ¾ of the way with cupcake batter. 

Bake cupcakes for 17-20 minutes, until edges are golden and tester comes out clean.

I'll never get tired of a confetti (or funfetti, if you will) cupcake.

Let the cupcakes cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before moving to wire racks to cool completely.

Let the cupcakes cool while you whip up the champagne custard filling.

🍾 How to make champagne custard

This champagne custard is also ridiculously easy to make. You can feel free to make it ahead of time if you want as it does need time to cool fully before you add it to the cupcakes. Of course, you can also just wait for it to cool while you sip the rest of the bubbly!

I recommend using a double boiler (here's an affiliate link to a great double boiler) set over medium heat. If you don't have a double boiler, use a heat-proof bowl set securely over a pot of gently simmering water.

If you prefer to make the custard over direct heat, just keep the heat low and make sure to keep your eye on the mixture... You want it to heat slowly!

Whisk egg yolks (save the egg whites for another use like meringues or macarons!), sugar, champagne, and cornstarch together.

And cook for about 10-12 minutes while intermittently whisking, until mixture thickens.

Place bowl in fridge to cool completely. As the custard cools, it will thicken more.

🥣 How to make vanilla champagne buttercream

The last step to these confetti champagne cupcakes is the vanilla champagne buttercream. I use a simple buttercream frosting recipe, with vanilla and champagne added in.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat butter until creamy, 1-2 minutes.

With mixer on low, slowly blend in the confectioner’s sugar, cup by cup until well-combined. Mix in champagne and vanilla until combined.

Try not to eat all of it directly off the spatula.

I think this champagne frosting goes so perfectly with the homemade confetti cupcakes, but if you prefer chocolate frosting, that would be delicious, too.

👩‍🍳 Assembling the cupcakes

Now that your cupcakes have cooled, you can core out the middle to make way for the champagne custard filling.

You can use a knife to cut out a little section in the middle of the cupcake or you can use a cupcake corer. I get SO much use out of mine and it creates the perfect little filling hole.

And then fill the center of each cupcake with the cooled champagne custard.

Frost and decorate your confetti cupcakes with more colorful sprinkles.

I like to use the Wilton 1A pastry tip and a piping bag to pipe on my frosting. And while I use rainbow sprinkles as the "confetti" in my cupcakes, I typically like to use a fancier sprinkle for the top of the frosting.

Champagne deserves a little extra fanciness, don't you think? Always be sure to add extra sprinkles.

On the outside, these do look like a typical funfetti cupcake. But take a bite out of one or cut one open and...

Check out that champagne custard!

omg it's heavenly and the best cupcake surprise ever. The custard is creamy and has a light, but noticeable champagne flavor.

Don't worry, the alcohol likely all cooks off in the custard making process (and there's not a whole lot in it anyway), but the flavor remains!

The same goes for the buttercream frosting! It's sweet and packed with a light vanilla champagne flavor.

All three components of the cupcake go so well together and just seem to scream "let's celebrate!"

And I don't know about you, but I always do what my cupcakes tell me to do.

⏲️ How to store

These confetti cupcakes are best enjoyed fresh, but they can be stored for up to 3 days if you want to bake them ahead of time.

Because they have a custard filling, they should be kept cold. So, I recommend you store them in an airtight container in the fridge. I think they taste best if you let them come to room temperature a bit before serving them.

You can also make the components ahead of time and assemble the cupcakes just before serving. Keep the cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature and store the custard and buttercream in the fridge. Let the buttercream come to room temperature before piping.

If storing custard, be sure to cover the bowl with plastic wrap so the plastic is touching the custard. This will prevent a skin from forming.

🎉 More party cupcake recipes

Over the years, I've brought my fair share of cupcakes to parties and have collected a plethora of celebratory cupcake recipes. Whether you're attending birthday parties or simply celebrating one of life's big moments at home, here are some of my favorite party cupcake recipes:

• Sweet Tea Vodka Cupcakes
• Rainbow Sherbet Cupcakes
• Root Beer Float Cupcakes
• Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Red Wine Buttercream
• Salted Caramel Cupcakes
• Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Irish Whiskey Filling
• Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes
• Margarita Cupcakes
• Chai Cupcakes (from One Sarcastic Baker)
• Tres Leches Cupcakes (from The Gracious Wife)

These cupcakes are a dream for anyone looking for the perfect birthday cupcakes or anyone who simply wants to celebrate life with some fun and delicious fluffy cupcakes with homemade frosting.

And with that, I'm heading back to the drawing board to plan all of the other cupcakes I'll be making this year. This is one resolution I won't let myself fail on!

What's your favorite cupcake to celebrate with?

📖 Recipe