The new year wouldn’t be complete without a little champagne, right? I know not everyone is a fan of the drink (personally, it took 26 years for me to be able to drink it without making that scrunched-up “oh-this-is-tart” face) but how can you not like a bubbly-inspired cake? A PINK bubbly inspired cake? With BUBBLES! Gelatin. Bubbles. If you take nothing else away from this, I repeat: bubbles.
Pink Champagne Cake
Makes one 3-layer 6″ cake
For the pink champagne cake:
1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) butter
3/4 cup champagne
3 eggs
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
Pink (or red) gel food coloring
For the vanilla buttercream frosting:
5 egg whites
10 oz. granulated sugar
3 3/4 sticks (425 grams) butter
1-2 tbsp. vanilla extract
Pink gel food coloring
For the gelatin bubbles:
4 tbsp. gelatin powder
5 tbsp. water
Pink gel food coloring
Luster dust or edible glitter (for extra sparkle)
Small balloons
Since the gelatin bubbles will need to set for about 24 hours, I suggest beginning with those. I used Sprinkle Bakes’ terrific tutorial to make these (which you can find here) so check it out and leave Heather some comment love!
To make the cake, preheat your oven to 350*F (175*C), and grease and line your cake pans (I grease the sides and line just the bottom). In a large bowl, whisk together all but the champagne and food coloring. Once your batter is lump-free, whisk in a few drops of pink or red food coloring until you get the color you want (I may have been a little overzealous with mine…). Gently fold in the champagne (we want to minimize fizziness from the carbonation), and pour the cake batter into your prepared pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
For the frosting, whisk together your egg whites and granulated sugar over a pot of bowling water until the sugar has completely dissolved (you’ll be able to feel it if you stick your finger in the mixture). Once the sugar has dissolved, whisk the mixture on high until stiff peaks form and the mixture is roughly room temperature. Cube your butter and beat it in piece by piece until a smooth frosting forms (since this is swiss meringue buttercream, keep in mind that this frosting tends to go from deflated to looking curdled to smooth, so don’t give up if the texture starts looking wrong… Just keep beating!). At the last minute, add the vanilla extract.
When I pictured this cake in my mind, I imagined it looking like a bubbling glass of pink champagne: a deep pink color fading into a foam of bubbles on the top. And because of this, I decided to go with an ombre frosting. To frost the cake, start by spreading a little frosting (about 1/3-1/2″) between each layer and then divide the rest between three bowls with a little extra in the bowl that will cover the top of the cake. To create the ombre effect, you’ll want to tint your frostings various shades of pink: a deep pink for the bottom, a lighter pink for the middle, and the lightest shade of pink for the upper portion of the sides and the top.
Starting at the bottom with the darkest shade of pink, begin frosting around the sides covering about the bottom 1/3 of your cake. Go back and smooth that out with your offset spatula before frosting the middle 1/3 with the next shade of pink (this will keep your shades of pink from blending too much). Smooth out the second shade, using the tip of your offset spatula to blend the two frosting where they meet. Continue with the third and lightest shade of pink for the top 1/3 of the cake and the top. Smooth out that layer. And, because I’m a sucker for textured cakes, I just had to add a little texturing to mine (but that’s totally optional). To do that, I drew my offset spatula around the sides of my cake in a spiral motion working my way up around the sides and onto the top (FYI: one of those rotating cake tables makes this part infinitely easier).
Once your cake is frosted, it’s just a matter of adding the finishing touches. For me, that meant my dried gelatin bubbles, of course (I mean, come on, that was one of my main selling points here!) and a boat-load of sprinkles. Life’s just better with sprinkles, am I right?
Happy baking and happy new year!
Frosting texturing technique adapted from Apt. 2B Baking Co.
It’s just beautiful and I love the color gradient! I’m wondering what it is like to pop one of those bubbles in your mouth? 🙂
Thank you! The bubbles were made from unflavored gelatin, so they didn’t really have a taste. A friend who tried the cake said eating the bubbles was what they imagined eating a ping-pong ball would be like. You could probably make them tastier with some flavoring, but they’re probably more for decoration than eating. 🙂
Such a pretty cake! I love how you incorporated champagne into the recipe.
Thank you! New Year’s Eve just seemed like the perfect time to work some champagne into a recipe. 🙂
WOW! This has got to be the most beautiful cake I’ve ever seen. And putting champagne in the batter? Amazing idea!
Awww thank you! 😀
This cake is beautiful!!!
Thank you! 🙂
Absolutely beautiful! The bubble are amazing and I love champagne in cake! It gives it a distinguished flavor that is incredible and hard to copy. Your choice of the ombre frosting is pure genius, and the sprinkles are the best! I would love if you would stop by my blog party and share this. The party is called “Celebrate It!” It’s where we celebrate the “everyday wonderful” of our lives! I hope to see you at the party!
http://thefreshmancook.blogspot.com/2015/01/celebrate-it-blog-party-24.html#
I’m so glad you liked the cake! And thank you for the invitation to your link party. I’ll definitely stop by later and check it out! 🙂
I love how girly this is! The bubbles on top are such a sophisticated touch to the ombre coloring. Beautiful cake!
Once I decided to make a pink champagne cake, I kind of took the idea of pink and really ran with it. I mean, pink cake, pink frosting, pink bubbles… even the backdrop is pink! 😉
Cuteness! So many occasions this would work for. Love it!
So glad you like it! 😀
Oh my! This cake looks heavenly. I will have to try and make one (maybe for my anniversary!)
If you end up making one, you’ll have to share a picture of it! 😀
This is so beautiful! I need to find an occasion to make this gorgeous cake:)
So glad you like it! 😀
Oh my word! This is the pretties cake I’ve ever seen. Stopping by from Flaming Toes to pin this beauty.
Thanks for sharing this post! I’m so glad you liked it! 🙂
Oh wow that cake caught my eye instantly, it’s beautiful. The bubbles on top look brilliant, I shall have to give it a go. This has been featured as one of my favourites over at Sweet and Savoury Sunday. Stop by, grab a button and link up again with us this week. Have a great day!
Thanks so much for the sweet feature! I’m so glad you liked the cake! 😀
What a gorgeous cake! Thank you so much for linking up at Tasty Tuesday! Your recipe has been pinned to the Tasty Tuesday Pinterest board! Please join us again this week!
Totally gorgeous! Thanks for linking up with What’s Cookin’ Wednesday!
I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for hosting each week! 🙂
This looks spectacular! Almost too good to eat! And those bubble on top are perfection! Wow! Thanks for sharing this at our weekly link party!
I’m so glad you liked it! And the bubbles were so fun to make! Definitely a different kind of cake topper. 🙂
Did you use a sweet or dry champagne for this?
Personally, I go for the kind of (cheaper) champagne I don’t mind drinking (because that’s what’s going to happen if there are any leftovers), which tends to be a sweet champagne. For this and most other champagne recipes on this site I used Moscato Dolce from Toso. 🙂