When I first saw a reference to pink champagne cake, I was immediately intrigued. I wondered how much of the flavor would actually be imparted to the cake and the buttercream. Pink champagne has never tasted different than regular champagne to me, but it’s much prettier for a cake, of course.
I could have combined it with strawberry puree or something else that would have been complementary but I wanted to simply taste the champagne in the cake. I used a white chocolate filling because I wanted that milky, cocoa butter flavor of the filling to contrast the slightly tart and acidic aspects in the buttercream.
I used AmeriColor soft gel paste food coloring for the cake and buttercream. I prefer gel and paste coloring as opposed to liquid because you don’t need as much.
Pink Champagne Cake with White Chocolate Filling
A unique and moist cake with a tender crumb. The slight tang from the champagne marries well with the sweet and creamy white chocolate filling.
Ingredients
Pink Champagne Cake Layers
- 4 cups all-purpose flour (20 oz. as weighed)
- 1/2 cup cornstarch (see Recipe Notes about substitutions)
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 9 large egg whites
- 1 1/2 cups pink champagne (sparkling Rosé would work, too)
- 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp. avocado oil or other vegetable oil
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups salted butter (softened)
- 4 drops AmeriColor Deep Pink soft gel paste food coloring (or other pink food coloring of choice)
White Chocolate Filling
- 8 oz. white chocolate (not chips; I use Cacao Barry's Zéphyr white chocolate pistoles) (see Recipe Notes about various white chocolate brands)
- 1 cup salted butter (softened)
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt (to taste)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups powdered icing sugar (sifted)
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Pink Champagne Buttercream
- 1 cup salted butter (softened)
- 6 cups powdered icing sugar (sifted)
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste (I use the paste because I like the flecks of vanilla bean in the buttercream)
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt (to taste)
- 1 drop AmeriColor Deep Pink soft gel paste food coloring (or other pink food coloring of choice)
- 1/2 cup pink champagne (between 1/3 and 1/2 cup, to taste)
Instructions
Pink Champagne Cake Layers
- Combine flour, starch, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Stir well with a whisk to blend and set aside. Add egg whites, champagne, vanilla and oil to a different medium bowl and stir together, then set it aside.
- In a large bowl, add butter and sugar. Beat with electric mixer for 3 to 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, mix to combine. Add 1/2 of the egg white mixture, mix to combine. Add them in this order and quantity until you add the last amount of flour mixture. Add your food coloring at this point, one healthy drop at a time. The amount you add depends on if you're going for a light blush pink or a more intense shade of pink. I do recommend gel or paste food coloring versus liquid, in general, because you generally use less and you don't risk tasting it in the final product.
- Divide the batter between 3 lightly greased, 10" cake pans which are lined with parchment and greased again. I used a #8 disher/scoop to divide it as evenly as possible although usually I weigh the batter in each pan. I was having issues with my scale on this day, though. After dividing it, spread it out evenly.
- Bake at 350F convection for about 23 to 25 minutes (or a couple of extra minutes if you don't have convection) until a toothpick test shows they're baked.
White Chocolate Filling
- Melt the white chocolate on "Defrost" mode in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until it's about 75% melted. Stir until completely melted and set it aside to cool.Beat the butter, salt, vanilla and powdered sugar together with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the cooled chocolate and beat until blended. Add the heavy cream slowly and beat on Medium or Medium-High until thick and fluffy.
Pink Champagne Buttercream
- Add all ingredients except champagne to a large bowl and begin blending. Beat on Medium-High until blended and then begin adding the champagne. If the champagne flavor isn't strong enough for you after 1/2 cup is added, you may have to add more powdered sugar along with more champagne in order to keep a good consistency.
Getting It Together
- Place the first cooled cake layer on your cake plate and spread half of the white chocolate filling onto the cake. (If you plan on using some of this for decorating, divide the frosting as you like.)
- Repeat with the second cake layer, then top with the third layer. Frost the outside of the tiered cake with the pink champagne buttercream and decorate as you like.
Notes
I use a combination of all-purpose flour and cornstarch in place of using cake flour mostly because it’s more difficult sometimes to find cake flour in the stores. If you would prefer to use cake flour, you can replace the all-purpose flour and cornstarch completely with 4 1/2 cups of cake flour. The amount of food coloring you will need depends first on the type of pink champagne you chose, because they can vary quite a bit in color. Also, you may decide on a more subtle or more intense shade of pink than I decided on. The recipe here for this cake yields three 10″ cake layers. If you prefer to make this in 8″ cake pans, then 2/3 of this recipe would yield three of those, perfectly. Otherwise, you can choose to make additional layers to create a taller cake or use the extra batter for cupcakes, freezing them for later. White chocolate chips are formulated with less cocoa butter than is desirable when you want melted white chocolate that doesn’t get grainy. Try to use a white chocolate that is at least 30% cocoa butter. I usually use Cacao Barry’s Zéphyr white chocolate pistoles, which are 34% cocoa butter, but have also used Ghirardelli White Chocolate Baking bars with great success. Valrhona’s 35% Ivoire feves are more expensive but are even better tasting, of course, and also melt like a dream. Once you taste a few brands you’ll notice the differences and decide which one you like the best.
