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A slice of pink champagne cake with sparkling sugar.

High Altitude Pink Champagne Cake

Heather Smoke
This pretty pink cake is so soft, light and fluffy, flavored with pink champagne and frosted with silky champagne buttercream.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 2 votes
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Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings16

Equipment

  • Stand Mixer with Whisk Attachment

Ingredients
 

Cake

  • 2 ¾ cups cake flour, spooned and leveled
  • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
  • 3 ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
  • 1 ½ cups pink champagne
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2-3 drops "soft pink" gel food coloring

Buttercream

  • 1 ½ cups pink champagne, reduced to 1/3 cup
  • 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp meringue powder
  • ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2-3 drops "soft pink" gel food coloring
  • 2-4 tbsp milk (only if needed for desired consistency)
  • 2 tbsp sparkling sugar
  • 8 large gold sugar pearls

Instructions
 

Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 350, and grease three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray. Line the bottoms of the pans with a circle of parchment paper, and spray the paper as well. (The cakes are very soft, and the parchment paper ensures they won't stick to the pans when you turn them out.)
  • In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
  • Add the champagne, oil, eggs, vanilla and food coloring, 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 and the food coloring.
  • 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 the milk as you're whipping the buttercream.
  • Stack, fill and frost the cooled cakes with the buttercream.
  • Before the buttercream crusts over, scatter with the sparkling sugar, tossing it at the sides so it sticks.
  • Scrape the remaining buttercream into a piping bag fitted with tip 1M. Pipe swirls on top of the cake, and decorate with sugar pearls.

Notes

  • This champagne cake is very soft, moist, light and fluffy, and will stay fresh tasting for days and days, if stored in an airtight container or cake carrier at room temperature.
  • If you want to make this cake without champagne, try substituting another fizzy, bubbly liquid, such as Sprite, Ginger Ale, or a non-alcoholic sparkling beverage.
Keyword Cake, High Altitude Cake, Pink Champagne, Valentine's Day
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