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Mimosa Cupcakes Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 15 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 12 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 27 minutes
- 🍽️ Serving: 48 mini cupcakes
- ⚡ Calories: 122kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Bright orange cake with a light, bubbly champagne buttercream
- ✋ Difficulty: Easy, on par with our angel food cupcakes
Quick Answer
Mix a white cake mix with fresh squeezed orange juice, egg whites, water, vegetable oil, and orange zest, beating for about 2 minutes. Fill lined mini cupcake tins two thirds full and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. For the frosting, cream butter with powdered sugar, then whip in vanilla and 3 tablespoons of champagne until light and fluffy. Frost the cooled cupcakes and add sprinkles if you like.
Jump to:
- Mimosa Cupcakes Quick Look
- Quick Answer
- Why This Recipe Works
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Key Ingredients
- Variations and Substitutions
- How to Make Mimosa Cupcakes
- Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Serving Ideas and Suggestions
- Mimosa Cupcakes FAQs
- Other Recommended Party Cupcake Recipes
- Mimosa Cupcakes (With Champagne Buttercream)
Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- Orange juice replaces the water, not just flavors it. Using a full cup of juice as the primary batter liquid means the citrus is baked into the crumb structure itself, not just perfumed on top.
- Zest carries what juice cannot. The aromatic oils in orange zest survive baking far better than juice flavor does, so the finished cake smells and tastes unmistakably orange.
- Egg whites keep the mimosa look. Skipping the yolks keeps the cake bright white with a golden top, so the orange and champagne pairing reads clean, just like the cocktail.
- Champagne goes in at the end, cold and raw. Adding the bubbly to the finished buttercream preserves its fruity, yeasty flavor notes, cooking it off would leave nothing behind.
- Mini size bakes before the juice weighs it down. Juice heavy batters can sink in full size cupcakes, minis bake through in 12 minutes with perfect domes every time.
- Two minute whip makes it fluffy. Whipping the finished frosting a full two minutes on high incorporates air so the buttercream feels light, almost like a champagne mousse.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- They are brunch and dessert in one two bite package, no glassware required.
- One batch makes 48 minis, which is exactly what a bridal shower or brunch table wants.
- The champagne buttercream alone is worth it, it belongs on everything from these to our lemon cupcakes.
- It has earned a permanent spot in our rotation, right up there with our mini monster cookies.
- It has earned a permanent spot in our rotation, right up there with our mini berry pancake bites.
- It earns a spot in the rotation right next to our homemade mini churros.
Key Ingredients
Both halves of the classic brunch cocktail show up here, oranges in the cake, champagne in the frosting. The key players:
- Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice: A full cup replaces most of the liquid in the batter. Fresh squeezed matters here, bottled juice tastes flat next to it.
- Orange Zest: Half a teaspoon carries the aromatic orange oils that juice alone cannot deliver, this is what makes the cake smell like a mimosa.
- White Cake Mix: The clean, snow white base that lets the citrus and champagne flavors lead. Egg whites only keep the color bright.
- Champagne: Three tablespoons whipped straight into the buttercream. Use whatever you would drink in an actual mimosa, cava and prosecco work beautifully.
- Unsalted Butter and Powdered Sugar: The buttercream backbone, whipped until light so the champagne flavor floats through every bite.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
This little cupcake takes on any brunch cocktail personality you want:
- Full size cupcakes: Bake 22 to 24 standard cupcakes for 16 to 19 minutes instead, same batter, same frosting.
- Virgin version: Swap the champagne in the frosting for 2 tablespoons of orange juice, it becomes an orange creamsicle cupcake.
- Grapefruit mimosa: Use fresh grapefruit juice and zest for a paloma-adjacent twist.
- Sparkling rose: Use rose in the buttercream and add a tiny drop of pink food coloring, gorgeous for showers.
- Boozy brush: Brush the cooled cupcake tops lightly with champagne before frosting for a stronger bubbly presence.
- Sprinkle situation: Gold sanding sugar or pearl sprinkles lean New Years, pastel nonpareils lean Easter brunch, like our angel food cupcakes get.
- Craving a different flavor next time? Our italian mini meatloaf recipe delivers the same easy comfort with its own twist.
- Craving a different flavor next time? Our lemon angel food cupcakes delivers the same easy comfort with its own twist.
- In the mood for something different? Our mini pigs in a blanket with savory glaze scratches a similar itch.
How to Make Mimosa Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the fresh squeezed orange juice with the cake mix, egg whites, water, oil, and orange zest with a hand mixer until combined, then beat on medium speed for 2 more minutes.
- Fill mini cupcake tins lined with wrappers about 2/3 of the way full.
- Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Rest the tins on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer the cupcakes directly onto the rack to cool completely.
- Cream the butter and powdered sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed, then add the vanilla and champagne and whip on high for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Frost the cooled cupcakes, add sprinkles if desired, and enjoy!
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Zest before you juice, a zested orange is easy to squeeze, a squeezed orange is impossible to zest.
- Room temperature butter is non negotiable for the buttercream, cold butter makes a lumpy frosting that never fully smooths.
- Add the champagne a tablespoon at a time, if the frosting looks curdled, keep whipping, it comes back together.
- Cool completely before frosting, minis feel cool on the outside minutes before the centers actually are.
- Use a piping bag with a star tip for that bakery swirl, minis look best with one clean rosette.
- Flat champagne works fine in the frosting, so this is the official destiny of the half bottle left after brunch.
- Make it a spread. When you are feeding a crowd, round out the table with our mini pineapple upside down cupcakes.
- Make it a spread. When you are feeding a crowd, round out the table with our christmas mocktails recipe.
- Make it a full spread. Our key lime cheesecake rounds out the table.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
Still filling out the menu? Readers love pairing this one with our pina colada cupcakes and our breakfast casserole.
They are best the day they are frosted, so if you are prepping ahead, bake the minis a day early and whip the champagne buttercream fresh the morning of.
Mimosa Cupcakes FAQs
The frosting genuinely does. Because the champagne is whipped into the buttercream raw rather than baked, its fruity, slightly yeasty character comes through clearly against the sweet butter and sugar. Combined with the orange cake underneath, the whole bite reads distinctly mimosa.
The cake contains no alcohol at all, only orange juice. The champagne lives in the frosting, which is never heated, so a small amount of alcohol remains, roughly a fifth of a teaspoon per mini cupcake. For a fully alcohol free batch, swap the champagne for orange juice or sparkling white grape juice.
Bake the cupcakes up to 2 days ahead and store them unfrosted in an airtight container at room temperature, or freeze them up to 2 months. Whip the champagne buttercream the day you serve for the freshest bubbly flavor, it takes 5 minutes and the difference is noticeable.
Anything you would happily pour into a mimosa: cava, prosecco, or an inexpensive brut champagne all work perfectly. Drier styles (brut) balance the sweet frosting best. Skip anything labeled doux or sweet, the frosting brings plenty of sugar on its own. Flat leftover bubbly works great too.
Store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, the champagne buttercream is a standard American buttercream and holds up well chilled. Let them sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before serving so the cake softens and the frosting loses its fridge firmness.
Yes, this batter makes 22 to 24 standard cupcakes. Fill lined tins two thirds full and bake at 350 degrees for 16 to 19 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. The frosting recipe covers two dozen full size cupcakes with a modest swirl, double it if you love a tall bakery style top.
Keep the brunch cocktail energy going, our french 75 is the drink these cupcakes want beside them.
Keep the brunch desserts coming with my maple frosted pancake cupcakes.
Mimosa Cupcakes (With Champagne Buttercream)
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 box white cake mix
- 1 Cup orange juice fresh squeezed
- 3 egg whites
- 1/4 Cup water
- 1/3 Cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp orange zest
Champagne Buttercream Frosting
- 3 1/4 Cup powdered sugar
- 1 Cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp champagne
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix juice with the rest of the ingredients with a hand mixer until combined. On medium speed, mix for another 2 minutes.
- Fill mini cupcake tins lined with wrappers 2/3 of the way full. Bake 10-12 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Place on a wired rack for 5 minutes, and then transfer cupcakes directly on to a rack. Cool completely.
Champagne Buttercream Frosting
- Cream together the butter and sugar with a hand mixer on medium speed. Add in the remaining ingredients and whip on high speed for two minutes until light and fluffy.
- Top cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles, if desired. Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Love This Recipe?
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I made these for a girls’ night, and they were devoured. Only change I made was to unsweetened applesauce in place of vegetable oil. I also topped the cooled cupcakes with some of the champagne, before frosting them, and garnished the frosting with orange zest.
WOW! LOL, never heard that one before but I’ll take it! Thanks so much!!
I made these tonight and brought them to a rehearsal: everyone RAVED about them! The only difference I made was substituting melted butter for vegetable oil. Someone said they were heavenly and on a totally different spiritual plane than us haha. Amazing recipe!!
Yay! I’m so glad you liked them, and thanks for letting us know!
I made these for my new job to share with the girls and they were a huge hit! I made a couple of changes/additions but mostly kept it the same and everyone wanted the recipe. Definitely gonna have to make these again soon.
Hey there Dana, those cupcakes looks good and sounds good too, I’d love to give them a try! I’m Louise Douglas with A Gainesville mom writes, and one of the newest co-hosts on Wakeup Wednesday linky, and I’m just stopping by to say congrats for being featured on this weeks linky! I have met some pretty amazing women behind a blog while co-hosting, and I’m thankful that I decided to give it a try because I may have never met you all if it wasn’t for the linky party! I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, and you are so amazing that I’m your newest follower on pinterest, twitter, and + google! you rock!
Looks so yummy & love how easy they are to make! Happy holidays Dana!
I love citrus flavored treats in the winter.. they make me think of summer. Pinned. Thanks for sharing this with us on Weekend Bites.
Oh my goodness! Mimosas are my favorite, I will definitely have to try baking these!!
Pinned. 🙂
oh yeah i would eat a few of these for sure! I love those little halos so having them in a slightly less messy form of a cup cake (hey I am experienced at messy eating lol) would be so delish!! love this!