Pink Champagne Cake Recipe

This pink champagne cake is super moist and fluffy thanks to real champagne mixed right into the batter, layered with tart raspberry filling, and frosted with my easy buttercream frosting with a little touch of molasses to warm up the flavor. It's the perfect cake for New Year's Eve, birthdays, bridal showers, or any time you want to pop a bottle and celebrate!

I adapted this recipe from my famous pink velvet cake, cut the sugar back a bit, and swapped in champagne and a splash of sparkling wine flavoring. There's just something about those pink layers that SCREAMS celebration. I originally made this cake for New Year's Eve, and for this version I filled it with my homemade raspberry cake filling and finished it with pretty pink vintage piping. It's a showstopper for any celebration.

What Makes This Pink Champagne Cake So Good

This cake is made for celebrating. It's soft, fluffy, and pretty enough to be the centerpiece of any party. Here's what makes it so good:

• Real champagne right in the batter, so you can actually taste it
• Reverse creaming gives you a super tender, fine crumb that's still sturdy enough to stack and decorate
• Tart raspberry filling cuts through the sweetness and looks gorgeous when you slice into it
• Easy buttercream with a Tablespoon of molasses warms up the flavor so it's not just plain sweet
• Easy to make kid-friendly or alcohol-free with sparkling juice (see Make This Recipe Your Own)
• The layers freeze beautifully, so you can bake ahead for a party

What's The Best Champagne For Pink Champagne Cake?

Did you know that not all champagnes are the same? They range from not sweet at all (brut nature) to very sweet (demi-sec). For this pink champagne cake, anything in the middle of the road works great. Look for the word "brut" on the bottle. If you use a sweeter champagne like demi-sec, reduce the sugar in the recipe by 1 Tablespoon to account for the extra sweetness.

You can totally use a pink champagne, a sparkling rosé, or André Blush if that's what you have. I prefer brut plus a drop or two of pink gel color because brut lets me control the sweetness, and the gel color gives me a reliable pink every time. The pink is optional though, the color doesn't change the flavor at all.

And yes, the bubbles matter! Use a freshly opened bottle at room temperature. The carbonation adds lift to the batter, so flat leftover champagne won't give you quite the same fluffy cake.

Pink Champagne Cake Ingredients

This cake is made with simple ingredients you probably already have, plus a bottle of bubbly. I always recommend weighing your ingredients with a digital kitchen scale for the most accurate results.

• Cake flour - Lower protein than all-purpose flour, so you get a soft, tender crumb. No cake flour on hand? My cake flour substitute is what I reach for.
• Granulated sugar - Sweetens the cake and the raspberry filling, and helps keep the cake moist.
• Baking powder and baking soda - Work together with the buttermilk and champagne to give the cake its rise.
• Salt - Balances the sweetness in both the cake and the buttercream.
• Unsalted butter - Used for the cake batter and the buttercream. Soft, room temperature butter is key so your batter and frosting don't break.
• Buttermilk - Adds tenderness and a little tang. If you don't have any, use my buttermilk substitute.
• Champagne - Brut champagne at room temperature. See the section above for picking the right bottle.
• Egg whites - Whites only in the cake keep the crumb light and the color clean. Use pasteurized egg whites in the buttercream since they aren't cooked. Pasteurized whites work in the cake too.
• Vegetable oil - Keeps the cake moist and soft, even after chilling. You can substitute any other type of oil that you prefer but depending on what you use, it can alter the flavor.
• Vanilla extract - Used in both the cake and the buttercream.
• Sparkling wine flavoring - Optional, but it boosts the champagne flavor. I use LorAnn sparkling wine flavoring.
• Pink gel food color - Just a drop or two gives the cake that pretty pink, and a little more tints the buttercream for the piping. Optional for the cake.
• Powdered sugar - Sweetens and gives body to the easy buttercream.
• Molasses - Just a Tablespoon in the buttercream warms up the flavor.
• Raspberries - Fresh or frozen both work for the filling.
• Lemon - The zest and juice brighten up the raspberry filling.
• Clear Jel or cornstarch - Thickens the filling so it holds its shape between the layers. Always mix it with water first, never straight into the hot fruit.
• Water - For the clear jel or cornstarch slurry.

How To Make Pink Champagne Cake Step-By-Step

Preheat your oven to 335º F and prepare three 8"x2" cake pans with cake goop or your favorite pan release. Make sure your champagne, buttermilk, egg whites, and butter are all at room temperature, or even slightly warm, so your batter doesn't curdle. Make the raspberry filling first (or the day before) so it has time to chill completely.

1. Make the raspberry filling. Cook your raspberries and sugar until bubbling, strain out the seeds if you like, then stir in the Clear Jel or cornstarch slurry and cook for 1 minute until glossy. Stir in the lemon juice and zest, cool, and chill until completely cold.

2. Mix the dry ingredients. Combine your cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix for about 10 seconds.

3. Prep the wet ingredients. In one container, combine your buttermilk and oil. In another, whisk together your egg whites, champagne, vanilla, sparkling wine flavoring, and pink color.

4. Add the butter. Add your softened butter to the dry ingredients and mix on low until the mixture looks like coarse sand, about 30 seconds.

5. Add the buttermilk and oil. Pour in your buttermilk and oil mixture, mix until the dry ingredients are moistened, then turn up to medium and mix for 2 full minutes to build the cake's structure.

6. Add the egg white mixture. Scrape your bowl, turn the mixer to low, and add the egg white mixture in three batches, mixing for about 15 seconds between each one.

PRO TIP: Don't cut that 2-minute mix short! That's what builds the structure of the cake. Skip it and your cake could collapse.

7. Divide and bake. Divide the batter evenly between your three pans and bake at 335º F for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. A little shrinking is normal.

8. Tap the pans. As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, tap each pan firmly on the counter once to release the steam. This stops the cakes from shrinking too much.

9. Cool the layers. Flash cool your layers in the freezer, unwrapped, for 30 minutes if you want to decorate right away, or wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze until you need them.

10. Make the buttercream. Whip your pasteurized egg whites and powdered sugar on high with the whisk attachment for 5 minutes, then add your softened butter in chunks while it whips. Add your salt, molasses, and vanilla.

11. Whip until fluffy. Keep whipping until the buttercream no longer looks curdled and is light and fluffy. This can take 15 to 20 minutes depending on your mixer. If it still tastes buttery, keep going. For extra smooth buttercream, switch to the paddle and mix on low for 10 to 15 minutes to knock out the air bubbles.

12. Fill the cake. Place your first chilled layer on a cake board, pipe a buttercream dam around the edge, and spread the raspberry filling inside, no more than ¼" thick. Repeat with the second layer, then top with the third.

PRO TIP: If your buttercream is too cold and clinging to the sides of the bowl, take out about a cup, microwave it for 30 seconds, and pour it back in. It'll help the whole batch whip up light and fluffy.

13. Crumb coat and final coat. Apply a thin crumb coat and chill for 15 minutes. Then apply your final coat of buttercream and smooth it with an offset spatula and a bench scraper. New to frosting cakes? My how to decorate a cake beginners guide walks you through it. Chill the cake until the buttercream is firm.

14. Pipe the vintage decorations. Tint some of your buttercream pink. Use a round cutter or a 3" paper space key to mark even spaces around the top of the cake, then pipe your garlands and swags between the marks and finish with a shell border around the base. My vintage cake with buttercream piping tutorial walks through every piping tip and technique.

Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator

This recipe makes enough batter for three 8"x2" cake layers and enough buttercream to frost and pipe them. Use the servings slider on the recipe card to scale it, or use the calculator below for other pan sizes.

Common Pink Champagne Cake Problems To Avoid

• Cake collapsed in the middle. You probably cut the 2-minute mix short after adding the buttermilk and oil. That mixing time builds the structure the cake needs to hold itself up.
• Layers shrank a lot after baking. A little shrinking is normal, but tapping the pans on the counter right out of the oven releases the steam and keeps it to a minimum.
• Batter looks curdled. Your ingredients were too cold. Bring everything to room temperature, or even a little warm, before you start.
• Cake tastes flat, not like champagne. Use a freshly opened bottle and add the sparkling wine flavoring. Flat champagne loses the lift and some of the flavor.
• Filling squishing out the sides. Always pipe a buttercream dam around each layer, keep the filling no thicker than ¼", and make sure it's completely chilled before you use it.

Final Thoughts

Is this not the most gorgeous pink champagne cake you've ever seen? Photos don't do it justice. The pink vintage piping on the white buttercream is SO pretty, and when you slice into it you get those pink layers with bright raspberry filling in between. The cake itself is so soft and fluffy with that little bit of champagne flavor. Pop a bottle, pour yourself a glass, and put the rest in the cake!

Make This Recipe Your Own

• Kid-friendly or alcohol-free. Replace the champagne with sparkling juice and use the sparkling wine flavoring for that champagne taste.
• Champagne buttercream. Adding champagne to buttercream doesn't really add any flavor. If you want the frosting to taste like champagne, add a little sparkling wine flavoring instead.
• Swap the filling. Pink champagne cake pairs really well with any fruit, like my strawberry buttercream in place of the raspberry filling.
• Other frostings. Try my brown sugar Swiss meringue buttercream or white chocolate buttercream.
• Skip the pink. Leave out the gel color for a classic champagne cake. The color doesn't affect the flavor.

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