Champagne Cupcakes with Strawberry Champagne Buttercream

I recently found out that one of B's distant cousins had gotten engaged and that him and his family were throwing a celebratory picnic. I already knew I was going to be bringing cupcakes, but what kind was a different story. The part of my mind that hasn't been fried by five years of university and substance abuse (haha, only partially joking...now I'm sad) came up with the brilliant idea of doing champagne cupcakes. I thought, heck, don't people use that shit to make toasts or something? I wouldn't know, it's too classy. At any rate, the hamster began to run on it's rusty ol' wheel:

Champagne Cupcakes:
- 1 box of yellow cake mix - you can use the "good" quality stuff, but I used the PC brand and it was a-okay. (good is in quotations because how good can box cake mix really be? NOT. Until Martha Stewart starts designing the stuff)
- 1 c. champagne

1. Now follow the directions on the box, but instead of using milk like they suggest, use the champagne. That is all. Bake according to directions. It's really that simple.

Strawberry Buttercream:
- 1 c. butter or margarine
- 1/2 c. pureed strawberries (or, as I sometimes call them, strawbies!)
- 2 c. icing sugar

1. Cream you butter or partially hydrogenated butter like spreadable product thing.
2. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, tasting between for sweetness and texture. Add more or less accordingly. Remember, this can change based on climate.
3. Add the strawbie puree and beat until combined.

Champagne Buttercream:
- 1 c. butter or margarine
- 1/2 c. champagne
- 2 c. icing sugar.

1. Same as above for the other buttercream, but with champagne.
Bonus: There is enough champagne left over to help the maker finish the product. Well done. Now stop crying and wipe that buttercream off of your face, drunko.

To pipe, fill one side of your pastry bag with the strawberry buttercream, and one side with the champagne buttercream. The champagne stuff will be a little bit softer than the strawberry stuff, so perhaps avoid using the Wilton 1M tip and just use the open end of the pastry bag? It worked okay for me, but resulted in a sloppy finish. Either that or it was the champagne...