Pink Champagne Cake {Scratch Recipe}

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Today we are excited to share a uniquely light and flavorful recipe with you for Pink Champagne Cake.

Pink Champagne Cake from Scratch

This elegant dessert, with its moist champagne infused layers & delicious buttercream is perfect for weddings, engagement parties, anniversaries, Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve, or any occasion that calls for something special.

If you love champagne, you'll love this recipe. Make sure to check out our Champagne Velvet Cake and Pink Champagne Cupcakes as well!

Why Pink Champagne Cake? A Quick History!

Southern bakers have been flavoring their cakes with sweet beverages for decades (Lemonade Cake 7 up cake, etc.) but Pink Champagne cake takes that practice to a whole new level of delicious sophistication.

It is believed that Pink Champagne Cake first originated on the west coast in the '50s and '60s, and was a hugely popular choice for bridal showers, weddings, and bachelorette parties.

There's just something a bit glamorous about a dessert flavored with Pink Champagne, don't you think? The Los Angeles Times printed a Pink Champagne Cake decades ago and to this day it remains one of its most requested.

Pink Champagne Cake Recipe by MyCakeSchool.com!

If you like Pink Champagne, you are going to fall in love with this recipe. While the pink champagne isn't overpowering, the flavor is unmistakable.

We love to fill and frost the layers with our Pink Champagne Buttercream Frosting, but traditionally pink champagne cakes have often been paired with bavarian cream or coconut fillings.

How to Make Pink Champagne Cake

You can find our full Pink Champagne Cake Recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!

  • First, preheat the oven to 350℉ and grease & flour three 8 inch round pans. We also like to line the pans with circles of parchment paper.
  • In a medium size bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
  • In another bowl combine the egg whites, champagne, vanilla extract, and vegetable oil. Whisk until blended and set aside.
  • In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter and sugar 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
  • While mixing on low speed, and the flour mixture and egg whites mixture alternately. Start and end with the dry ingredients. We do three additions of dry ingredients and two additions of wet. Mix just until incorporated.
  • Pour into prepared pans and bake 25 to 30 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted the center comes out clean. Cool in baking pans 10 min. then turn out.

Pink Champagne Buttercream

We frosted our champagne cake layers with a delicious Pink Champagne Buttercream! We made extra since we did a lot of piping with our design. This recipe is so easy, pipes great, and has a light champagne flavor.

It is a simple combination of softened butter, confectioners sugar, pink champagne, vanilla, a pinch of salt, and pink coloring if you'd like!

Recipe FAQs

No, when you add alcohol to cake batter, some of the alcohol may bake off, but a good amount still remains.

In today's champagne cake, not only is there champagne in the cake layers, but also in the frosting. So, while it is not a huge amount of champagne (about 1 ½ cups for the whole cake), it is still present.

Yes! Just as with the majority of our cakes, from lemon cake to carrot cake, almond cake and more, these champagne cake layers can be frozen with no problem. Simply allow the cake layers to cool (either to room temperature or to slightly warm).

Then, wrap in plastic wrap followed by foil. Freeze for up to three months! They will remain as fresh as the day they were frozen.

To thaw, bring the wrapped cake layers to the kitchen counter and let them sit for 30-45 minutes (or until condensation stops forming) before unwrapping. Continue to thaw to desired amount for assembling the cake.

We don't know a lot about different types of champagne. We used Andre Blush for this recipe, but we have heard from readers who have used different types of champagne- all with great results. Use your favorites!

Champagne Cakes and More

We have several more great champagne cakes to share with you! Aside from today's Pink Champagne Cake from scratch, we also have a delicious, easy Pink Champagne Cake from a mix!

Other popular recipes are our Champagne and Strawberries Cake , Strawberry Champagne Cake, Pink Champagne Cupcakes and Champagne Pound Cake.

Here are a few more of our favorite "Boozy Cakes" (including Limoncello Cake, Pina Colada Cake, Margarita Pound Cake and more) that are sure to make your special occasions more special.

Pink Champagne Cake Recipe from scratch! This cake has amazing flavor and has a sophisticated feel! Perfect for all sorts of special occasions!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't miss our full collection of Cake Recipes, which include our favorite cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes!

If you are interested in cake design, we have so many free Cake Decorating tutorials to share with you as well!

Pink Champagne Cake Recipe

Pink Champagne Cake {Scratch Recipe}

This flavorful Pink Champagne Cake will make any occasion feel more special!
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 28 minutes
Course: Dessert
Servings: 15 servings
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Ingredients

For the Pink Champagne Cake

  • 3 cups (342 g) cake flour
  • 1 Tablespoon (15 g) baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon (2g) salt
  • 6 egg whites (194g)
  • 1 cup (242g) pink champagne, I used Andre Blush Champagne
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla
  • 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil 18 g
  • 2 cups (400g) sugar
  • 2 sticks (226 g total) unsalted butter, softened slightly
  • Small amount of pink food color I used AmeriColor Deep Pink but any pink would be fine. I added the color with a toothpick, just a small amount will give you blush pink

For the Pink Champagne Buttercream* This is a Double Batch

  • 4 sticks (452g total) unsalted butter, softened *See Notes
  • 12 cups (1380g) powdered sugar
  • 4 teaspoons (16g) vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon (6g) salt
  • ½ cup (122g) pink champagne
  • Pink Coloring Gel of Choice We used a touch of Americolor Deep Pink

Instructions

For the Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 350℉ and grease & flour three 8 inch round pans. We also like to line the pans with circles of parchment paper.
  • In a medium size bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
  • In another bowl combine the egg whites, champagne, vanilla and vegetable oil. Whisk until blended and set aside.
  • In the bowl of your mixer, mix the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
  • While mixing on low speed, and the flour mixture and egg whites mixture alternately. Start and end with the dry ingredients. We do three additions of dry ingredients and two additions of wet. Mix just until incorporated.
  • Pour into prepared pans and bake 25 to 30 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted the center comes out clean. Cool in baking pans 10 min. then turn out.
  • *Makes 7 ½ cups of batter.

For the Pink Champagne Buttercream

  • Cream the softened butter until smooth and lightened in color
  • Blend in the salt and vanilla
  • Gradually add the powdered sugar with the champagne until the powdered sugar is incorporated. Beat at medium speed 3 to 4 minutes. The texture will become very smooth. If you are tinting the entire batch of buttercream light pink, you can add a very small amount of coloring gel while it is mixing.
  • This recipe makes approximately 8 cups of frosting.

Notes

A Note about the Buttercream...

*We made a double batch of buttercream because of the amount of piping in our cake design.  You can cut the recipe in half if you'd like.
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382 Comments

  1. Could I make the buttercream a day or 2 before and then whip it back up before assembling the cake?

  2. @Belinda, yes you can! If you're making the frosting a couple of days in advance, I would refrigerate it & then just sit out on the counter a few hours or so before you want to use it so that it can soften.

  3. First time baking champagne cake - Came out far better than I expected! Was a bit worried it would be too sweet but it worked out. :D Great recipe, will probably bake it again.

  4. @Devon- Yes it is! (Assuming the top tier is on it's own cake board with supports beneath) ;0)

    @Drina- I'm happy that you liked it!

  5. Hi there! I'm thinking about making this cake for a wedding! However, I need to make the cake 4days in advance. Will it keep that long? And if not can I freeze it fully iced? Thanks!

  6. Hi Marie, Our choice is to have cakes eaten by the third day. Since that is not possible in your case this is the freezing method we have had success with. Place the decorated cake in a bakery box. Wrap the box with 2 layers of plastic wrap then a layer of aluminum foil and freeze.
    When you are ready to thaw the cake.......8 hours or the night before the wedding place the still wrapped box in the refrigerator to begin thawing. The day of the event place the box (still wrapped) on the countertop to continue thawing and come to room temperature, depending on the temperature and size of cake it could take several hours. Unwrap the box, your cake should be perfect. Hope this helps. Let us know if you have other questions.

  7. I made this cake for a bridal shower. Everyone loved it. I wasn't a big fan of the frosting. I found it to be too sugary. Other than that it was delicious.

  8. Thanks BeBe and Devon! I might do a test this week. How long will the cake last once defrosted? I would have to take it out of the freezer to drive it to the venue on Thursday (wedding is on Saturday).
    Thanks!