Champagne Cake (A Birthday Story)

This was another calendar recipe, and it looked so good I had to make it for Shane's birthday. It was May's picture, so it was like fate. So we procured a white cake mix, pink champagne, and heavy whipping cream. All the other ingredients we had on hand. (Milk, eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla, powdered sugar)

In the picture there are four pink layers with fluffy white frosting in between. My cake was a little different. I didn't use any food coloring to make it pink (even though Shane said he'd totally rock a pink cake) because I only have green food coloring left over from St. Patrick's Day's Green Eats. And my cake was only two layers. Not because it would be too hard to do four or I didn't have time or didn't feel like it, but because I dropped one of the cakes on the counter when I was taking them out of the oven. My cake pan manufacturers thought it would be just brilliant to make the outside with a non-stick coating as well. Not such a good idea after all. I put the cake back into the pan and later I was able to frost the cracked cake back together, but there was no way I'd be able to make layers with it like that.

But back to the beginning of this story! I separated my eggs into my batter bowl (I hate making cake without it now, since it has the measuring cup pouring shape) and so not to be wasteful I made a tiny egg yolk omelet, which I accidentally crisped a little while trying to figure out if you need to coat non-stick baking pans. I never did find the answer but coated them anyway.

To the egg whites I added milk, vegetable oil and double vanilla (vanilla is the best, and I say you can never use too much! You can, however, use way too much almond extract) Then, just like my recipe said, I took the whisk to it and added the cake mix. It was a horrible un-whiskable mess. Then I remembered I had forgotten to add the champagne. I poured in the champagne, and a little for me on the side, to test it. (I tested it again a little later, too.) And it was still a horrible un-whiskable mess. So I scraped out the cake "batter" from my whisk and used a spatula to gently stir in the champagne, it took a few minutes to fully incorporate and I thought I had ruined it! But finally it began to homogenize and I stopped freaking out. Batter into the coated pans, bake for 20 minutes.

I got out everything for the frosting except for the heavy whipping cream, which I waited to be the last thing I got out. The colder your whipping cream, the faster you'll get to soft peaks (my goal). So into my bowl went 1/2 cup powdered sugar and again double vanilla, with 1 pint of heavy whipping cream. I stirred slowly at first to avoid flinging powdered sugar and cream all over the kitchen. Then I turned the beater on medium until it just began to thicken. Earlier, I had quartered 3 marshmallows and put them in the microwave, when the cream began to thicken I turned them on for 15 seconds and immediately added them to the cream, beating on high. There was some splashing, but not too much. I beat the cream for the next 20 minutes, and was not quite to soft peaks when the cakes finished baking.

The cream (future frosting) went into the refrigerator for a much needed chill, so I could take the cakes out to cool. I let the cakes cool and the cream chill for about 20 minutes before turning out the cakes and beating the cream to soft peaks, which didn't take long since I had done most of the work earlier and it had had a chance to chill.

I put the broken cake on my cake pedestal, because I say, if you're going to bake you may as well be fancy about it. I don't bake often, so it's like a special occasion. The broken cake was the bottom layer, so I scooped a big pile of frosting (formerly cream) onto the cake and spread. It was so easy! I had never used a cream frosting like this before, and it was so smooth and not sticky at all (like jar frosting which is basically sugar paste). The other cake went on top and the rest of the frosting I scooped onto the top of that and spread and smoothed down the sides. This cake took about 45 seconds to frost, it was amazing! This is the only way I'm making frosting from now on. The cream may be more expensive than buying jar frosting, but it tastes so much better and is so easy to use that the added cost and effort are worth it. Especially considering I make cake like twice a year. And unlike other homemade frosting which call for more powdered sugar than anything else, this frosting doesn't harden. (Even refrigerated overnight, it was still soft and fluffy)

I refrigerated the cake until time to sing happy birthday, cut the cake and serve it! I used my new high heel cake server because it is fabulous and perfect for the job. We also finished the champagne with the cake, and it was a perfect pairing.