Wine and cheese cupcakes

I celebrated my birthday with wine club (and red wine night). I saw a recipe on the Cupcake Project a couple months ago for wine and cheese cupcakes and was determined to make them.

So I used my early birthday present, the KitchenAid stand mixer,  on my birthday. It seemed appropriate.

The cupcakes have about a cup of red wine in the chocolate cupcake batter (plus camembert cheese). And the frosting is a red wine chocolate ganache. I wasn't a huge fan of the consistency of the ganache, but the flavor was great (dark chocolate and red wine ... can't beat that).

I realized a few days ago that I had some interesting red wines in my kitchen to use for these. I had bought a bottle of Cupcake cabernet sauvignon to bring to wine club. I had also bought a bottle of Layer Cake primitivo (Italian zinfandel) recently. So I used some of the Layer Cake wine in the cupcakes, and I brought the bottle of Cupcake wine to drink at wine club. (I suppose I'm drawn to baked goods.)

The cupcakes (and all our wines) were winners at wine club.