Wild Strawberry Champagne Cake

Strawberries and champagne have always made a perfect pair, so it's only natural that we make a Champagne cake with a Wild Strawberry Buttercream.

Champagne is the go-to celebratory drink for so many major life moments, or for the two most major champagne-focused holidays: NYE and Valentine's Day.

This cake is perfect for both days.

It's sweet without being too sweet and has subtle notes of strawberry & champagne throughout every bite. You can thank us later for adding those layers of strawberry jam. They are everything!

Oh and the best part! You don't even have to spend money on a good bottle of champagne (or bubbles, as we call it) or wait for strawberries to be in season.

A good bottle of bubbles is for drinking, and not sure about you, but we don't have time to waste standing over the stove pureeing fresh strawberries or even grinding down and using freezed dried strawberries--which give off no flavor in buttercream-- we're making a layer cake for goodness sake! Time is of the essence here!

Cakes can be complicated but luckily, we've created a simple vanilla cake recipe that we've infused with our Amoretti Champagne Compound and a basic, fool proof vanilla buttercream that we've added our Amoretti Natural Wild Strawberry Artisan Flavor to. Oh and guess what?

You won't need food coloring for this recipe. Thanks to our Natural Wild Strawberry Artisan Flavor, the real fruit in this product colors it perfectly.

Now let's get to the good stuff.

Ingredients

For the Champagne Cake Layers:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 7 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon  Amoretti® Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract W.S. (2x)
• 1 1/2 tbsp Amoretti® Champagne Compound
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup whole milk

For the Wild Strawberry Buttercream:

• 2 cups unsalted butter, softened
• 7 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon Amoretti® Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract W.S. (2x)
• 1 1/2 tbsp Amoretti® Natural Wild Strawberry Artisan Flavor
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2/3 cup milk

For the Cake Layers & Decorations:

• 1 cup of seedless, strawberry jam
• Fresh strawberries

Directions

For the Cake Layers:

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 3 (8-inch) round cake (or 4, 6-inch) pans with cooking spray. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper rounds, and spray paper.

2. In a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamy and fluffy. 

3. Once fluffy, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides.

4. With mixer running on low speed, add the egg whites, 1 at a time, stopping to scrape down sides as needed. Then, add the Amoretti® Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract W.S. (2x) and Amoretti® Champagne Compound beating on low speed just until combined.

5. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Gradually add this mixture to the egg mixture, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Make sure each addition is combined before moving to the next one. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans.

6. Bake in preheated oven until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean and edges begin to pull away from pans, about 25 minutes. All ovens vary so be sure to keep an eye on the cake should the cooking time need to be extended.

7. Cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Then, place onto wire racks to cool completely before frosting.

For the Buttercream:

1. In a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachement, beat butter in bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment on medium speed until creamy. 

2. Add half of the powdered sugar, beating until smooth, about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.

3. Incorporate the leftover powdered sugar, Amoretti® Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract W.S. (2x),  Amoretti® Natural Wild Strawberry Artisan Flavor, and salt. With mixer running on medium speed, gradually add milk, beating until fluffy and spreadable, about 30 seconds.

To Decorate:

1. Place a dollop of frosting on your serving plate or cake stand. Set one cake layer on top and gently press down to ensure it is in place
2. Put about half of the buttercream into a large 16 or 18 inch disposable piping bag. Cut a 1⁄2-inch opening in tip of bag. Pipe buttercream, 1⁄3 inch high, in circles starting from the outside and working your way in.
3. Smooth out the lines between each ring of frosting. Then, pipe one ring on the outside edge of the cake (This will keep the jam from spilling out).
4. Then, place a thin layer of jam on top of the smoothed out frosting.
5. Repeat until you reach the final layer.
6. For a sharp edge, be sure to put the final layer of cake with the bottom facing up. Crumb coat the entire cake.
7. Chill for 30 minutes. 
8. Once set, frost the outside of the cake and smooth out with a bench scraper to get clean lines and sharp edges.
9. Garnish with some fresh strawberries or pipe on some rosettes on the top of the cake.
10. Serve.