How to Make Champagne Cake

Lisa KaminskiUpdated: Apr. 26, 2023

What better way to celebrate holidays and special occasions than with a bubbly champagne cake?

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Whether I’m celebrating Christmas, toasting the New Year or cheering a job well done, champagne is always welcome. It’s the ultimate celebratory drink. Why not combine the special, festive feeling of a glass of bubbles with the appeal of a good dessert? That’s right: It’s time for champagne cake!

Choosing Champagne for Your Cake

For this cake, you can use any sparkling wine of your choosing. If you enjoy a dry champagne, opt for your favorite brand. If you like something a bit sweeter, try a Prosecco or sparkling moscato. And if you want to add a little color to this cake, pop for pink champagne!

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Concentrating Champagne Flavor

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Champagne’s flavor can be easily overpowered in baking, which is why for this recipe, you don’t want to add in a cup of bubbly straight from the bottle. Instead, you’ll want a more concentrated flavor that will really come through in the baking.

Concentrating champagne for baking is simple, though. Pop open a bottle of champagne and measure out 2 cups into a small saucepan. Bring this to a simmer and let it reduce until there’s only a cup of liquid left. This should take about 10 minutes. The result is half the liquid with double the flavor. Just be sure to let this concentrated sparkling wine cool down to room temperature before adding to your batter.

Store any leftover champagne in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

Champagne Cake Recipe

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This recipe makes a three-layer, eight-inch cake. The frosting for this cake is a slight variation on this vanilla buttercream—a great go-to recipe. For the champagne cake, I doubled the recipe and added a bit of champagne for a boost of flavor.

Ingredients

2-1/2 cups flour
2 cups champagne or the sparkling wine of your choosing
1-3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sour cream
6 egg whites
3-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting

1 cup butter, softened
9 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons champagne
2/3 to 3/4 cup milk

Directions

Step 1: Mix the batter

Mixing the batter for this cake is very simple. You start like you would for any good cake. In one bowl, mix your dry ingredients—flour, baking powder and salt—and set aside.

Then cream together your butter and sugar until nice and fluffy using a stand or hand mixer. Then add in your sour cream and vanilla extract. Once those ingredients are well combined, add in your egg whites. Beat until nice and fluffy. Once those ingredients are well combined, alternate adding your dry mixture with your milk and concentrated champagne. Scrape the sides as needed.

Editor’s Tip: If you’re using pink champagne, add a drop of food coloring or two to really punch up the color!

Step 2: Prep the pans

Once the batter is ready, prep your cake pans for baking. For this recipe, you’ll need three eight-inch pans. Just grease and flour as normal. Then divide the batter evenly between the three.

Step 3: Bake

Pop this in a 350ºF oven for 22 to 25 minutes. To check if the cake is done, just poke a toothpick into the center of one of the cakes. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.

Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 5 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack. Allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting.

Step 4: Make the champagne frosting

For this cake I wanted more than just a bit of champagne in the cake batter—I wanted some in the frosting, too! Using an American buttercream frosting as a base, I substituted two tablespoons of sparkling wine for milk.

To make this simple buttercream, just beat together your butter, powdered sugar, a smidge of vanilla extract and two tablespoons of champagne. Then beat in the milk until it reaches the right consistency—somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of a cup of milk.

Step 5: Assemble the champagne cake

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Grab your offset spatula—it’s time to frost! I like to add a small daub of frosting to my cake plate to start. This helps the first layer of the cake stay in place as I frost. Then just layer your cakes and frosting being sure not to over- or under-frost. Once the three cakes are all stacked and aligned nicely, move on to the outside. You can follow our guide to learn how to frost a cake in detail.

For this cake, I kept it fairly simple and just spread on the buttercream with a large offset spatula, but you can pipe or try other decorating techniques if you like! To give it a subtle but festive finishing touch, I sprinkled on some pearlescent jimmies and sugar pearls.

The Finished Champagne Cake

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When finished, this cake looks simple yet festive—like a classic flute of bubbles. But the real fun comes when slicing into the cake. It’s perfectly moist with a welcome hint of champagne flavor and not too sweet! Combined with the buttercream, it’s the perfect balance of sweet, airy and celebratory. This cake has me thinking that I’ll be toasting friends and family this New Year’s with a glass of champagne and a generous slice of cake. Learn how to decorate champagne bottles.

The Best Desserts for New Year's Eve

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Semisweet Chocolate Mousse A friend shared this rich velvety chocolate mousse recipe with me. I love to cook and have tons of recipes, but this one is a favorite. Best of all, it's easy to make. —Judy Spencer, San Diego, California Go to Recipe Be sure to pair these delicious desserts for New Year's with a festive cocktail!

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Berries in Champagne JellyMy sister gave me this recipe a few years back when I was looking for some desserts for New Year's. It goes great with the winter holidays, but I sometimes serve it at brunch. —Andrea Barnhoom, Scottsville, New York