Happy New Year's!!
I am ending this year with some. glitz, sparkle, shimmer and CAKE.
Kir Royale New Years Champagne Layer Cake. Ok so I am ending it with some fanciness too. I realized I never made a cake for my blog all year!! This had to be remedied asap. Whenever I make cakes its usually for my daughters birthdays and I make big fancy layer cakes for them but I never blog them. I think those cakes are best left for their birthdays and I never make them wait for me to photograph them or take a slice out before they get a bite. But when I make a cake for my blog everyone has to wait for a bite!
I got this wild idea to make royal icing snowflakes and have them sticking into the cake to look like they were falling - but they also ended up looking like New year's fireworks after I stuck them in the cake. So these work for both snow falling and fireworks.
These were tedioius to make but so worth the labor of love. They came out exactly how I wanted them too. I also decided to go crazy and get disco dust all over myself and my house and make a glittery 2016 in royal icing as well for the cake.
Sparkly, glitzy, glittery, shimmery. Messy. I think I will be cleaning up sprinkles and glitter until 2017. It was all so worth it for this decadent Kir Royale New Years Champagne layer cake.
I have made so many cocktails this month that I figured why not a cocktail cake. I had so much champagne in the house from all my champagne cocktails I figured why not a champagne cake. I saw this one HERE from Butterlust blog and I decided to make her recipe with a few tweaks. I love Kir Royales. Creme de cassis with champagne. Simple but really delicious. I thought a play on a Kir Royale in cake form would be really good.
The cake itself is boozy. Two whole cups of champagne. It makes for a really flavorful and moist cake with a nice hint of champagne. I brushed the layers with creme de cassis as well as added in black currant jam to some of the vanilla swiss meringue buttercream for the filling for more of the Kir Royale flavor.
I love the color of black currants and the taste is really good. I love the pop of purple in this cake. Also covering the cake in sprinkles helps hide any flaws or bumps in the frosting and allows for less than perfectly smooths sides. It gives the cake a fun shimmer and hides imperfections - win win!
This was such a fun cake to make and decorate. And? You can't have a slice of cake without a glass of champagne to go with it!
Celebrate the new year with a slice of this Kir Royale New Years Champagne Layer Cake. I will be!
"Recipe"
Kir Royal New Year's Champagne Layer Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 3 cups cake Flour
- 3 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter softened
- 2 cups superfine castersugar
- 6 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups dry champagne or prosecco
- 3 tablespoon Creme De Cassis
- 3 tablespoon Simple Syrup
For the Filling
- 3 tablespoon black currant jam
For the decorations
- Large clear sprinkles
- Royal icing snowflakes optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Butter three 8” cake pans, top with parchment circles and butter then flour. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg whites one at a time until well blended. Add in the vanilla extract.
- Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the champagne in three additions, starting and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing until just blended.
- Divide the batter between the cake pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or they cakes bounce back when lightly pressed. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes then invert and remove from pans to cool to warm
- When cooled but still slightly warm, lightly piece the tops of the layers all over with a fork. Using a pastry brush, brush one tablespoon of the creme de cassis over the tops of the cakes and one tablespoon of the simple syrup over each. Wrap in plastic wrap, place in resealable baggies and freeze 4 hours up to over night.
To frost and fill.
- Make the buttercream. Take out 1 ¼ c and mix the 3 tablespoon of currant jam with it to make the filling. Place one layer on a cake stand or decorating stand and spread ½ of the filling over the top, leaving ½ inch of the edge clear. Top with another layer and repeat with the remaining currant jam filling. Top with the third later and lightly frost the top and sides with the vanilla frosting for the crumb coat. Chill until set then frost with remaining buttercream. Press sparkling sugar into the sides.
- Serve at room temperature
Notes
I made Haniela’s small batch royal icing. I printed out snowflake clip art. I placed a square of wax paper over a snowflake and traced the snowflake with royal icing in a pastry bag fitted with a #2 or #3 piping tip. I placed a #20 white floral wire on top and topped with more icing. Let dry until firm. Carefully remove from the wax paper and trace the flat back side with royal. Let dry fully before placing in cake. These are very fragile so make sure to make extras since they will break.
For the 2016 I sprinkled disco dust over the top right after piping the numbers in royal icing so it would stick to the numbers as they dried.
Cheers!! I wish you all a very Happy New Years!! Here's to an amazing 2016!!
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