Have Some Rosé!

This Spring Baking Championship winner owes her victory to pink bubbly.

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When Jaleesa Mason started competing in Food Network's Spring Baking Championship, she'd recently had her second child and was on maternity leave from Mo & Jay Pastry, her shop in Little Falls, NJ. "I worried about what was going on back home," she says. "And I had to learn to shake off the competition pressure." But with encouragement from judge Kardea Brown, Jaleesa clinched the $25,000 grand prize for a wedding cake that had "embroidered" icing flowers and tiers with three different flavors: blueberry, cookies-and-cream and sparkling rosé. "I thought, 'It's a wedding, you've gotta have champagne!"" she says. The judges agreed. As Nancy Fuller said, "That sparkling wine was sublime." We recreated the flavor in cupcake form so you can taste for yourself! -Carol Lee

ROSÉ CUPCAKES WITH STRAWBERRY SWISS MERINGUE

ACTIVE: 1 hr l TOTAL: 1½ hr (plus cooling) l MAKES: 24