Last updated on January 30th, 2024
I made two “retro” cakes last weekend. The first one — a “7UP Cake” from the 1950s — was so sweet it made my teeth ache. I swiped one slice before tossing the cake in the trash. Mercifully, the second subject — a 1960s-era “Pink Champagne Cake” — was pure bliss: moist, not-too-sweet, and pleasantly perfumed with blush sparkling wine and a hint of strawberry. In other words, it’s the kind of cake that belongs on your dessert (or breakfast) table! My semi-original recipe:
First, generously spray a large bundt pan with baking spray (baking spray contains flour). I sprayed the heck out of my Nordic Ware “Anniversary” pan. The pan is 10 1/2 inches wide, and 4 1/2 inches deep.
Next, ferociously whisk the following dry ingredients in a large bowl: 3 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 3/4 teaspoon table salt.
Then fling 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter and 2 1/4 cups sugar into the bowl of a standing mixer, and beat them at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy — about 5 minutes.
No standing mixer for you? Use a large bowl and handheld electric beaters.
Then drop in 4 large eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one.
Now beat in 1 cup of sour cream…
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract…
And 1 teaspoon strawberry extract. Strawberry extract will amplify the perfume of the champagne.
Working at low speed now, add the flour in 3 additions…
Alternating with 1 cup of room-temperature pink (or blush) Champagne, beginning and ending with the flour.
What kind of pink Champagne? The cheap, “sparkling wine” stuff. The French number above cost me $8.99. I probably wouldn’t drink it, but I’m happy to use it for cake!
This next step is entirely up to you: beat in some pink or red food coloring. I used a generous squirt of Neon Pink gel, and it barely made my cake blush.
Did you know that pink Champagne isn’t actually pink? It’s amber. Consequently, “pink” Champagne offers only perfume, not color.
Transfer the batter to the prepared bundt pan, and, with the help of spatula, spread the batter UP the sides of the pan, away from the center. This way, the cake will have a more-level base (which just now is the top).
TRUE CONFESSION: I misunderstood the batter-spreading tip, and moved the batter from the sides of the pan towards the center. Don’t be like me.
Bake on the center rack of a preheated 350°F oven until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean — about 1 hour. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then unmold and let cool completely.
Oh. I forgot to mention that as the cake bakes, it will fill your kitchen with a guh-lorious Champagne-and-strawberry perfume. Heaven!
Now, because I spread my top batter in the wrong direction, the center baked higher than the sides. This is hardly a problem because…
When unmolded, the cake looked like it was floating in mid-air. Probably I should re-name this recipe “Levitating Pink Champagne Bundt Cake.”
In any event, when the cake is completely cool, mix up a simple glaze of sifted confectioners’ sugar, water, and vanilla extract. (I’ll post the exact measurements in the printable recipe below.)
Then do this…
And this.
Then cut yourself a generous slice…
And dive right into this moist and fragrant poetry. I certainly did.
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And if you’re looking for another great dessert that you can bake in a normal-size bundt pan, check out my easy-peasy Lemon and Rose Cake!
Here’s the printable:
Pink Champagne Bundt Cake
Equipment
- A large-capacity bundt pan (10 1/2 inches wide and 4 1/2 inches deep), generously sprayed with "baking" spray
Ingredients
The dry ingredients:
- 3 1/2 cups (455g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon table salt
The wet ingredients
- 1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups (450g) sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup (240g) sour cream
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon strawberry extract
- 1 cup (240ml) pink Champagne OR Prosecco OR sparkling wine
- Optional: pink food coloring
The glaze:
- 1 1/2 cups (125g) sifted confectioners' sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons water
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Center the oven rack; preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the butter and sugar at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy -- about 5 minutes. At medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the sour cream, and the vanilla and strawberry extracts.
- At low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the Champagne, beginning and ending with the flour. At medium high speed, quickly beat in the (optional) food coloring.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Use a spatula to spread the batter up against the sides, and away from the center (this encourages a level surface during baking). Bake until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean -- about 1 hour. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then unmold and let cool completely.
- In a medium bowl, beat together the confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons of water, and the vanilla extract. Add more water as needed to achieve a thick but pourable glaze. Drizzle the glaze generously over the cake. Serve with coffee or Champagne!
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Brenda Johnson says
How very pleased i was to be brought a piece of this fine cake to try!!! Visually it’s just lovely- and taste wise- delicious!!! Very moist, not too sweet, has a lovely almost yeasty quality from the pink champagne..as well as the delicate flavor enhanced by strawberry essence! Just delightful!!! Thank you for sharing Kevin!!!
Judith Kane-Huebner says
Home made cake is really so easy to make, and it is such a delicious treat. This looks divine – not too sweet, not all gobbed up with icing, and a lovely flavor. Perfect with a cup of tea in the afternoon.
Thank you, Kevin. I have followed you for years, and your flavors and charm always delight ! Thank you, my friend.
Janis says
Wow. How lovely. In the immortals words of dear Mr Rogers: ‘won’t you be my neighbor?’
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Brenda – So glad you enjoyed the cake!
Hi Judith Kane-Huebner – You are too kind. Thank you.
Hi Janis – So many folks have compared me to Mr. Rogers. Think I’ll purchase some button-down sweaters.
Linda Kalbler says
Good morning Kevin.
The champagne cake looks wonderful.
2nd time this week i have seen a champagne cake. This is s o much easier than the one i saw on a cooking show. Will definitely be making it
Thanks for the green bean recipe also. I have beans coming out of my ears!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Linda – I know what you mean — lots of Champagne cakes are terrifically “involved.” This one is simple — and simply delicious. Let me know how it turns out for you!
Karen Mary says
I never heard of a champagne cake! But it looks like everything a cake should be. Thanks for the recipe and (always) inspiring pics. Happy for the spreading tip, too! Cheers!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Karen Mary – Perhaps you are too YOUNG to have heard of champagne cake. In any event, I hope you’ll give it a try!
Miller Hawkins says
Absolutely awesome cake! Taking it to work tomorrow so my staff can also partake! I used strawberry powder that I bought in Vienna Austria. Wow! Thanks for your blog posts each week Kevin! Keep up the great work!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Miller Hawkins – Thanks for posting your review here. So glad you enjoyed the cake! (Viennese strawberry powder sounds divine.)
Alastair says
Hi Kevin,
Delicious cake. Thank you.
London 1958. Businessmen carry umbrellas and wear bowler hats, (without fear of having them knocked off their heads – that sport came later) stride along Shaftsbury Avenue. On every corner, Cockney paper boys with sandwich boards, cry out: “Read all about it…read all about it…paper mister? We rented one room in a converted Victorian mansion on Randolph Avenue. Every Thursday evening, on the street below, a woman appeared with a cart drawn by a Shetland pony. “Fresh fish” she’d call. “Fresh haddocks, salted herrings, only one-and-six.”
Every morning I walk to work at the Safari Club on Cumberland Avenue. One morning I pass a stern looking man in black Homburg hat, long black coat and burgundy scarf. It’s Donald Wolfit.
(I‘d just seen him in Svengali. )I smile. He scowls.
My partner (now of sixty-three years) works in Beauly’s’ tobacconists at Hyde Park Corner, he runs after James Mason who left postcards on the counter.
Our young friends meet up with us at weekends and we cavort around the coffee bars in Soho. (Cavorting was just coming into its own around this time, in this area at least.)
The coffee bars did not have black painted heating ducts and water pipes as part of the décor but were small intimate places where smart young (cool) people dispensed frothy concoctions from what looked like miniature neon-lit juke-boxes but were in fact Italian Gaggia™ Espresso coffee machines. No biscotti, no plastic wrapped lemon-poppy seed pound cake. Only a mouth-watering array of creamy French pastries, fondant covered Petit Fours and my favourite: Baba Au Rhum!
How is that for a long way around to asking if you’d whip up a batch of those currant filled, rum soaked clouds of heaven on one of your wonderful videos that we all wait to view whilst sipping our Sunday morning coffee. I’ve never come across Rum Baba either in the US or Canada…pity! Kevin. You may just start something. PS: And I think I speak for everyone when I ask you to play Chopin- Nocturne in E Flat Major (Op. 9 No. 2) Thanks.
Meryl O says
Is there anyway to do this with real strawberries instead of extract?
Kristi says
I printed the recipe, ordered the pan and purchased the ingredients. Meanwhile I am perfecting a Zucchini bundt cake with an orange glaze for our local Farm Market’s Zucchini Smackdown. Isn’t that a fun name. I will tell you how it turns out. The pan is definitely a winner of a bundt pan!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Alistaire – First, thank you for the virtual (and screen-play-worthy) trip to London, 1958! And next; I’ll put Baba au Rhum on my to make/film schedule.
Hi Kristi – Zucchini Smackdown — love it! And yes, the Nordic Ware pan is terrific. Let me know how BOTH cakes turn out for you!
David Deutsch says
Wow, Kevin! This not only looks delicious, it’s as arty as one of artist Wayne Thiebold’s cake paintings. I have to dust off the old Bundt pan and gives this a whirl!
Kristi says
I won the Smackdown and have the Prosecco cake in the oven! I hope it’s a winner also!
Traci Miller says
Dear Kevin,
I made this cake yesterday and took it to a Christmas party. It was a big hit…beautiful, special and delicious!!! So delicious and Kevin you explain everything perfectly and it turned out just as described. I will be making this over and over. I love your recipes and I look forward to all your sweet and excellent videos! Merry Christmas!!
Traci
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Traci – So glad you enjoyed this cake!!!
Cindy Plachecki says
I just made this cake this afternoon. Delicious! I bought a nice quality Strawberry extract and used what was left of our Laurent Perrier Champagne from Valentines Day! I made mine a bit more pink. My husband loves it too!
Thanks for the great recipes. Love your show, it’s so chill. My husband and I watch every new episode.
Cindy