This is a cake worthy of any special occasion or celebration! Whether for an engagement or wedding, NYE party or birthday celebration, this high altitude toasted sugar champagne cake is sure to make a hit. Soft, fluffy cake is flavored with champagne baked into the cake batter, and toasted sugar adds lovely notes of caramel. The cake is frosted with silky champagne buttercream, and decorated prettily with gold sugar pearls and French macarons.
You might also love this pink champagne cake, white chocolate drip cake, and Lambeth style chocolate cherry cake.
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What is Toasted Sugar?
Toasted sugar is plain granulated sugar that’s been heated slowly, allowing the sugar to deepen in flavor and color, without turning into liquid caramel. It develops a richer flavor with notes of caramel, but can still be used in recipes exactly like granulated sugar, since it retains its crystalline properties. To make the toasted sugar, I followed a recipe from Serious Eats. Since it takes a while, I wanted to make it worth my time, so I toasted about 5-6 cups of sugar to keep on hand.
It’s a pretty fascinating process, watching pure white sugar slowly turn amber. The difference in taste is remarkable, too. And while it does take a while to cook the sugar and then let it cool, it’s an interesting ingredient that can add a whole different flavor to your cakes.
The flavors of the toasted sugar and the champagne perfectly complement each other, and the play on words is so fun. Since we make toasts with glasses of champagne, what’s more fitting than a toasted sugar champagne cake?
Ingredients
Cake Flour. Cake flour has a lower percentage of protein than all-purpose flour, so it makes a very light and fluffy cake. For best results, please use cake flour.
Toasted Sugar. Find the complete process for making toasted sugar over here at Serious Eats. However, plain granulated sugar can be used in this cake, and it will still be a fantastic champagne cake.
Baking Powder. I use baking powder, rather than baking soda, to leaven this cake. It rises beautifully, with a light, airy cake crumb.
Coarse Kosher Salt. A little salt should be in every cake recipe. It balances the sugar and enhances the flavors.
Champagne. Besides the toasted sugar, the champagne is our star ingredient. You don’t need an expensive champagne, just get one that you like to drink. Pink champagne would be wonderful, too! I use a full 1 1/2 cups of champagne in the cake batter, and the bubbles make such a light cake.
Vegetable Oil. The oil keeps the cake so moist and light.
Eggs. Eggs give the cake structure and richness.
Vanilla Extract. A little vanilla nicely complements the flavors of the champagne and toasted sugar.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350, and grease three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Add the champagne, oil, eggs and vanilla, and whisk for about 30-40 seconds until smooth and well combined.
- Divide the batter between the pans. Bake on the center oven rack until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean, about 22-25 minutes.
- Set the pans on a wire cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Champagne Buttercream
Between the cake and the buttercream, this toasted sugar champagne cake has three cups of champagne in it! The alcohol cooks off while the cake is baking, leaving behind just the flavor, which is complemented by silky, fluffy champagne buttercream.
Now, you may be wondering how to use 1 1/2 cups of champagne in buttercream without turning it into a soupy mess? The answer is to make a champagne reduction. All you need to do is simmer the champagne on the stove over medium heat, letting the water evaporate and the alcohol cook off. Once the champagne is reduced (I reduced mine from 1 1/2 cups down to just 1/3 cup), you’ll have a lovely syrup with a concentrated champagne flavor. After the syrup cools, you can add your champagne reduction to your buttercream.
- For the champagne reduction, pour the champagne into a saucepan and set over medium heat. Simmer until the champagne is reduced to about 1/3 cup. Cool completely to room temperature.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter for one minute.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar, the meringue powder, salt and vanilla. It will be clumpy. Add the cooled champagne reduction.
- Increase the speed to medium, and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl several times, until very light and fluffy. If needed for desired consistency, add 1-2 tablespoons milk or cream.
- Stack, fill and frost the cooled cakes with the buttercream.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
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High Altitude Toasted Sugar Champagne Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 ¾ cups (330g) cake flour, spooned, leveled and sifted
- 1 ½ cups (324g) toasted sugar
- 3 ½ tsp (14g) baking powder
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ cups (399ml) champagne
- 1 cup (224g) vegetable oil
- 3 (165g) large eggs
- 1 tsp (4g) vanilla extract
Buttercream
- 1 ½ cups (399ml) champagne, reduced to about 1/3 cup
- 2 cups (452g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups (560g) powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp (9g) meringue powder (optional)
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp (8g) vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350, and grease three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Add the champagne, oil, eggs and vanilla, and whisk for about 30-40 seconds until smooth and well combined.
- Divide the batter between the pans. Bake on the center oven rack until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean, about 22-25 minutes.
- Set the pans on a wire cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- For the champagne reduction, pour the champagne into a saucepan and set over medium heat. Simmer until the champagne is reduced to about 1/3 cup. Cool completely to room temperature.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter for one minute.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the powdered sugar, the meringue powder, salt and vanilla. It will be clumpy. Add the cooled champagne reduction.
- Increase the speed to medium, and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl several times, until very light and fluffy. If needed for desired consistency, add 1-2 tablespoons milk or cream.
- Stack, fill and frost the cooled cakes with the buttercream.
Hi Heather, Thank you this lovely recipe. If I want to make a plain vanilla cake and use the champagne only in the frosting, what do I replace the 1.5 cups of champagne with in the cake ? Would it be milk ? Thanks.
Hi there, good question! If you want to make a vanilla cake, I’d suggest this recipe for the cake, rather than substituting another liquid for the champagne in the champagne cake.
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/vanilla-cake-recipe/
Hi Jenn. Can I use sparkling cider since I don’t drink champagne?
I think it would probably work – please let me know how it turns out!
If making at not a high altitude should I do anything differently?
Chelsea, here is some information from the FAQs on my site:
I live in Denver, CO. I bake and test everything at high altitude (5,280 feet above sea level, which is why this is called the “mile high city”). Cookie baking, bread making and especially cake baking, can be affected by altitude. So if you live at a lower altitude or at sea level, you may need to make some minor adjustments to the flour, sugar, liquid and leavening agents. Here is an excellent article by King Arthur Baking with charts on how to convert a recipe from low altitude to high altitude, which you can simply reverse for converting from high altitude to low altitude. Another good resource is the Colorado State University Extension for high altitude food preparation.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/resources/high-altitude-baking
https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/high-altitude-food-preparation-p41/
Will your recipes only work at high altitude or can I make them if I live at sea level? This is the most frequent question I get from visitors to my site. If I’ve labeled a recipe as “high altitude” in the title, then it’s something that’s more affected by altitude than other bakes. For example, baked goods containing chemical leaveners, such as cakes, cupcakes, cookies, muffins, brownies, bar cookies and some breads are the most affected by high altitudes. Other recipes like ice cream, no bake cheesecake, cutout cookies (without leavening), buttercream, fruit crumbles, pies and tarts are affected the least, if at all.
So to answer your question, you may or may not need to make adjustments for sea level baking. For cakes and other baked goods, you will likely need to reduce the flour by several tablespoons and slightly increase the leavening for it to rise correctly at sea level or low altitude. However, I’ve had feedback from many people who make my recipes at sea level without adjusting them, and they’ve reported back that they’ve worked out great for them.