After watching a recent “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” episode about a bakery that featured cupcake-and-wine pairings, I started thinking: Why haven’t I written a blog on that topic?
After all, I grew up in a family bakery and baked and iced my fair share of cupcakes — although we didn’t get much fancier than white cake with chocolate icing and chocolate cake with chocolate icing.
Today, the flavors can be much more exotic, and that makes the wine pairing possibilities almost endless.
As always, we look for the dominant flavor of the food to match with the wine. When it comes to cupcakes, that’s often (but not always) the frosting.
Here are six pairing ideas for our fellow sweet-tooth wine lovers…
* Chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting — Little did I know as a teenage baker how wonderfully this cupcake would pair with Cabernet Sauvignon.
* Vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting (such as a wedding cake) — A semi-sweet Riesling. The vanilla frosting acts like a canvass for soaking in the luscious fruit flavors of the wine.
* Lemon cupcake with lemon frosting — Sauvignon Blanc.
* White cake with buttercream frosting — Chardonnay. (Many Chardonnay wines are aged in American oak barrels, which can lend a vanilla-like flavor to the wine.)
* Red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting — Pinot Noir.
* Strawberry or vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting — Mocato diAsti.
