RECIPE: Champagne Cake

It may just be a side effect of getting older, but it seems to me that this festive season has come around with indecent haste. It doesn’t seem so long ago I was making New Years’ resolutions (save money, eat less sugar, lose weight) and then breaking those resolutions (cake, duh).

While I may not have achieved my fitness goals this year, I have certainly managed to perfect the art of marrying alcohol with baked goods. And this cake is no exception. It’s light and fluffy with a pleasant tipple of sparkling white wine. It’s a perfect dessert idea to impress at any Christmas or New Year’s do.

Champagne cake

Makes 3 x 6 inch cakes. Serves 8 to 10.

Ingredients for cake

• 300g of plain flour

• 3½ tsp of baking powder

• 1 tsp of salt

• 150g of unsalted butter (softened)

• 350g of caster sugar

• 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste

• 5 egg whites

• 350 ml of champagne/sparkling white wine

Ingredients for champagne buttercream

• 500g of caster sugar

• 250g of egg whites

• 800g of unsalted butter (softened)

• 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste

• 75 ml of champagne/sparkling white wine (roomtemperature)

Ingredients for presentation

• Green, white and light-yellow gel food colouring

• Edible silver or white glitter

Make the champagne cake

1. Preheat your oven to 180◦C.
2. Grease three 6 inch cake tins and line with baking paper.
3. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
5. Add the sugar to the butter and cream for 3 to 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
6. Slowly add the egg whites and vanilla bean paste to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix until combined.
7. Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the champagne until combined.
8. Evenly divide the cake batter between the prepared cake tins.
9. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out of the centre of the cakes clean. Set aside to cool.

Make the champagne buttercream

1. Combine the sugar and egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Place the stand mixer bowl over a saucepan of water to create a double boiler. Ensure that the water does not touch the bottom of the stand mixer bowl.
3. Heat the sugar and egg whites to 72◦C, stirring occasionally with a whisk.
4. Once at temperature, transfer the stand mixture bowl to the stand mixer. With a whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on a high speed until stiff peaks are formed.
5. Change the whisk attachment to a paddle attachment. Add the butter slowly on a low speed.
6. Add the vanilla bean paste and combine.
7. Add the champagne very slowly. Combine.

Assemble the champagne cake

1. Once the cakes are completely cooled, level them to ensure that the tops of the cakes are flat.
2. Using a small amount of buttercream, affix one cake to a cake board or plate.
3. Spread a generous layer of buttercream to the first layer of cake. Repeat with the second and third layers.
4. Frost the top and sides of the cake with a thin layer of buttercream, smoothing with a scraper.
5. Tint a small amount of buttercream dark green,like the colour of a champagne bottle. Tint the remaining buttercream white and light yellow.
6. Add the white and yellow buttercream to piping bags fitted with medium star tips. Pipe small stars over the surface of the cake.
7. Add the green buttercream to a pipping bag fitted with a small star tip. Free hand pipe the word ‘pop!’ on the front of the cake.
8. Spray the surface of the cake with edible glitter.