Welcome to the free issue of Between the Layers: A conversation about life through the lens of cooking and baking. For more great content and recipes, consider becoming a paid subscriber! Her Pink Champagne Cake, My Red Velvet Cake & Trading PlacesTwo lovely Valentine’s cakes have stories to tell - No. 43
With less than a week until Valentine’s Day, I invited Substack food writer Jolene Handy to Between the Layers to tell us about Pink Champagne Cake. Meanwhile, I shared my Red Velvet Cake over on her newsletter, Time Travel Kitchen. Happy Valentine’s Day to all! If you’d like to read more about Jolene’s newsletter, here’s how:
Bake a Lovely Pink Champagne Cake on Winter’s Gray DaysBy Jolene Handy Baking Anne’s Pink Champagne Cake from her beautiful book American Cake reminded me that I’ve always loved Valentine’s Day. It’s a sweet holiday, all pinks and reds, a burst of warmth during the gray days of winter, celebrating love. My mother always made a big fuss about it from the time we were very little: strawberry Jell-O in a heart-shaped mold for dessert, chocolate lollipops and pink sweetheart roses on the table. There were still plenty of days left to play in all that Long Island snow, but Valentine’s Day signaled that pretty soon crocuses would be peeking out from under it and we could finally ditch the snowsuits.
This is a gorgeous cake for Valentine’s Day, or any time you’d like a celebration cake, which, like champagne, can pretty much be any day you like. Anne writes in American Cake that pink champagne first gained in a modern popularity that continues today when it began showing up regularly as the drink of choice among chic women at nightclubs in the 1960s. This included Princess Margaret who apparently enjoyed a bubbly glass of the stuff herself when out on the town. But pink champagne was no newcomer: Veuve Clicquot sold rosé champagne as early as 1775 and Champagne Ruinart recorded first sales in 1764. This cake is light and moist and the addition of the champagne brightens each bite. The buttercream frosting, which also contains champagne, is so good. You taste the sweetness first and then it finishes with the crispness of the champagne. All parts of this cake complement each other in interesting, unexpected and delicious ways. Plus, it’s just so pretty on the plate.
I topped it with pink rose petals just as it appears on the cover and in the pages of American Cake, but you can have fun decorating it with strawberries or raspberries, edible flowers, sparkling sugar or add deeper color to the buttercream if you like. To achieve the petal-pink color, you need only the tiniest bit of food coloring. I hope you’ll make this showstopper of a cake and share it with those you love. Many thanks to Anne for inviting me to join you here today. Happy Valentine’s Day! Jolene Jolene Handy’s 1927 Chicago apartment kitchen is the inspiration for her newsletter, Time Travel Kitchen. She is a graduate of the former Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School and worked as a baker at Sarabeth’s Restaurant in New York and in the Executive Dining Room at Gourmet Magazine before a career in non-profit. You can find her on social media on Twitter and Instagram. How do you bake for Valentine’s Day?
Pink Champagne Cake(From American Cake, by Anne Byrn) There was a major snowstorm in Chicago the day I made this cake last week — everyone was hunkered down. So after I finished baking, decorating and photographing the cake, I cut a slice for myself, poured a glass of some of the remaining pink champagne and had a late afternoon-early Valentine’s Day-snow day celebration in my kitchen as I was cleaning up. Loading the dishwasher was way more fun and celebratory than usual! Makes: 12 servings Prep: 50 to 55 minutes Bake: 23 to 27 minutes Cake: Butter and flour for prepping the pans 3 cups cake flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 6 large egg whites, at room temperature 1 cup pink champagne, at room temperature 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 cups granulated sugar 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature Tiny amount of pink food coloring Pink Champagne Buttercream Frosting: 1 3/4 cups (3 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 8 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted 4 to 5 tablespoons pink champagne 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Tiny amount of pink food coloring White chocolate shavings, sliced strawberries, or edible rose petals for garnish 1. For the cake, place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour three 8-inch layer pans. Shake out the excess flour, and set the pans aside. 2. Place the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium-size bowl, and sift to combine well. Set aside. 3. Place the egg whites, champagne, vanilla, and oil in a large mixing bowl, and whisk by hand until well blended. Set aside. 4. Place the sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy and light, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the flour mixture and the egg white mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stir in the pink coloring. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, and place the pans in the oven. 5. Bake until the cakes just pull back from the sides of the pans, 23 to 27 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven, and place them on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of each pan, give each a gentle shake, then invert it once and then again onto the rack to cool completely, right side up, 30 minutes. 6. While the cakes are cooling, prepare the frosting. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl, and beat on medium speed until creamy and smooth, 1 minute. Add 6 cups of the confectioners’ sugar and the champagne and vanilla. Blend on medium speed until smooth. Add the remaining confectioners’ sugar, adding what you need to make the frosting thick but spreadable. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high, add the pink coloring, and beat until the frosting is fluffy, 30 seconds. 7. To assemble the cake, place 1 layer on a cake plate. Spread about 3/4 cup of frosting to the edges. Place a second layer on top and repeat. Place the third layer on top, and frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. Garnish as desired, depending on the occasion. Slice and serve. CAKE NOTE: As Anne recommends, I used Wilton pink coloring paste. Use a toothpick to dab into the paste and use only a small amount to create a pale pink cake. Source: Napjus, Alison. “First Rosé Champagne? Older Than You Think.” www.winespectator.com , M. Shanken Communications, Inc., March 10, 2014 Between the Layers news from Anne
When a cookbook reads like a bookI am thrilled to share that the Wilmington United Methodist Church Book Group’s 200th read was American Cake. Had I known this 20-year-old book club in Wilmington, NC, was going to bake from and discuss my book I would have found out which cake these ladies loved the most! And I am working on some discussion questions for American Cake to facilitate book clubs and will feature those in a post this spring. Remember American Cake — or American Cookie! — when you are planning your book club calendar for this year.
This Thursday, for Subscribers:Chocolate Pie and an Open Thread! Bring your chocolate baking questions to this thread you’ll receive in your inbox Thursday morning. I’ll be online for an hour or so and will share one of my favorite chocolate pie recipes — it was so hard to choose because I’m crazy about chocolate pie. So if you’ve got questions about baking something fabulous, like a flourless chocolate cake or you are a meringue pie pro, join in on the thread. Every question is worth asking! Have a great week, and thanks again to Jolene for joining us and bringing cake! Anne
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