Happy New Year! I’ve been writing the Lake Huntington News for exactly one year. I am blessed to have been asked by my friend Eileen Hennessey to take over the column and share the local happenings and events.

Thank you so much for reading along each week! I hope you enjoyed your holidays and made a toast to New Year’s for a beautiful start, for healthy habits and to spend time with family and friends. I am excited to see what 2023 brings.

We like to celebrate the new year with sweet treats, and these mini pink-champagne cupcakes could not be easier to make, as they use a boxed mix. 

Make your own frosting from scratch, or use a tub of ready-made frosting with a few drops of red food coloring to make pink icing for your cupcake.

To make a nonalcoholic version, simply swap the pink champagne for lemon-lime soda. Your cupcakes will still be light and airy.

The recipe is so easy and delicious! You can find this recipe and many more on my blog, Ever After in the Woods, at www.everafterinthewoods.com. I hope you will check it out!

Thank you again for following along with me this past year on “Lake Huntington News.” I hope your 2023 brings you everything that you could ever want and more!

If you have a local business that you would like to have spotlighted in an upcoming column, get in touch. Email jenn@jennpowelldesigns.com with any news, events and happenings.

Easy shortcut pink champagne cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

1 box vanilla cake mix

4 large eggs

1/2 cup pink champagne

1/2 cup milk

2 drops pink food coloring

oil (amount required by cake mix)

For the icing:

1 tub vanilla icing

A few drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line mini-cupcake pans with cupcake papers and set aside. (An average box of cake mix makes 60 mini-cupcakes.)

In a large bowl, stir all of the ingredients for the cupcakes until combined, approximately 200 strokes.

Let the batter sit for about 10 minutes.

Fill the prepared cupcake  2/3 full.

Bake 12 minutes.

Let cool completely before icing.

Prepare the icing and frost cupcakes.