Recipe: Champagne Cake

 

Some weekends, I load up the car and drive hours and hours to spend the weekend hiking, camping and not showering.  And then some weekends, I spent hours in the kitchen cooking up everything delicious I can think of.  This weekend was the latter.  I spent hours in my kitchen cooking up roasted turkey, homemade spaghetti sauce, fresh homemade bread, and the best of all, champagne cake. While I don't typically share recipes on this blog, this one was too good not to share. 

Imagine a Sunday morning, sipping a mimosa and eating champagne cake for breakfast on the couch while the rain falls outside.  Yep, that was my Sunday and it was fantastic.  Don't worry, I am here to share the recipe with you so you too can consume 7,000 calories before lunchtime. 

Do you taste the champagne?  Yes! It is a sweet moist fluffy vanilla cake with that dryness from the champagne that cuts the sweetness of the cake.  Not only do you taste the champagne, but the carbonation in the batter just makes it perfectly moist and fluffy.  And yes, there is extra champagne in the bottle for that mimosa. 

 Cake and cocktails.  

Cheers!

Naked Champagne Cake

From the Glitter Guide

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 egg whites

2 cups champagne

DIRECTIONS

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans (or cut parchment paper to fit).

2.  In a bowl combine flour, baking powder + salt. In a mixing bowl beat butter and sugar 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

3.  Add vanilla and beat in the eggs one at a time.

4.  Beat in flour mixture and champagne in three alternating additions, starting and ending with flour to prevent curdling.  The batter will be very airy, almost like a mousse 

5.  Pour batter into pans and bake 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. I use parchment paper in a circle on the bottom of my cake pans to get the cake out easily.

6.  Let cool and then frost the middle and top layer only with Champagne Buttercream Frosting.

 

Champagne Buttercream Frosting

3/4 stick unsalted butter (room temp)

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/4 cup champagne

1/8 cup whole milk

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1.  In a mixing bowl beat butter 1 minute. 

2.  Gradually add the powdered sugar, champagne, milk and vanilla and continue beating until smooth and creamy.